(I Miss) the Scent of a Newborn

Challenge 41 at Journaling Junkie asks us to write about something we miss. I knew right away that I wanted to journal Alyssa's growing up and I felt that this was perfect to record how I feel about it.

Truly, I do miss having a newborn in the house. I feel that Alyssa has always been wanting to keep up with her older sisters. She thinks she's big already like them. She likes to eat their food and watch their movies and play with their toys. She thinks she's not a baby anymore, much to my dismay. She will always be my baby.


Title: (I Miss) the Scent of a Newborn

Hidden Journaling: I can't believe you are already a year old! You insist on doing big girl things like eating chips, watching movies and playing with small toys. I miss my baby! I miss the times when your whole world revolved around me, when you relied on me solely for comfort and nourishment. You are slowly growing up and I'm learning to let go. But no matter how big you become or how tall you grow, you will always be my baby.

Proud owner of a Nikon D60 kit

Yup! That's me! When we got to Manila last Sunday, Mier surprised me with this. Ooooh! I love it! And I love him! :-)

Starfish Finds

Our little family enjoys traveling and going on adventures whether by car, by plane or by boat. Being in Cagayan de Oro, we have a lot of opportunities to go to the sea or up the mountains. On this day, we decided to go snorkeling in Laguindingan, a municipality just at the outskirts of CDO. The girls enjoyed it so much that they expressed their desires to be marine biologists in the future. :-)

I used Got Sketch? #69 for this layout. Since we'll be going out of town on Saturday, I won't be able to scrap for one whole week. I'll try to post other layouts within the week though. Thanks for looking!


Title: Starfish Finds

Materials: Paper - American Crafts, My Mind's Eye, Prima, Fancy Pants; Acrylic Flowers - Simply Scrappy, Stickers - American Crafts; Chipboard - Fancy Pants, Staedler Pen, Carl Corner Rounder, Fiskars Lace Border Puncher, Sizzix Doodle Tag Alphabet Dies

Journaling: You both readily put the starfish back in the water after I took your picture. Such environmentalists! Laguindingan, Feb 2008

Joy!

I heard about Scrapbooking From the Inside Out from my good friend Bjay. I've been wanting to join their challenges but I just have a lot of commitments right now. However I have vowed to do the pre-kit challenge on Joy and finally I've finished it before we go on a vacation break this Saturday. :-)

I used to love sewing on my pages before but since the birth of Alyssa, scrapping needed to be faster and easier. I did sewing again for this layout hence it took me a long time to finish it. I guess sewing will have to take a backseat in my layouts for the time being.

Title: Joy

Journaling: I always knew I wanted to be a mom. But I never thought that motherhood could give me this much joy! Everyday I am grateful for having each of you --- my blessings in life. You fill my heart with pure joy that sometimes I feel that it would burst with so much love. You are my world!

Materials: Chatterbox papers, Craft Express chipboard letters, Heidi Swapp Flower, Prima flowers, Fiskars Border Puncher, Others: brads, heart charm and embroidery thread

Photo by Jeff Lopez

Little Notes

I love it that Nadine can now read and write. She leaves me little notes around the house and surprises me with letters and even mini books. Last night, she gave me this before going to bed. She is such a sweetie, really! What a joy to receive something like this!

If you can't read it, the note says, "Dear Mom, You're as good as the best, And I love you so much. It's nice that your here by my side. I love you. Mom, I can't stop loving you. Nadine"

Sino ba naman ang di maiiyak sa ganyan??? :-)

What's Mine is Yours

Here's my take on Liza's Journaling Junkie Challenge #39 His and Hers. After I created the layout, I reread Liza's instructions and I realized that didn't stick to the "things that are specifically his and hers" instructions. However the journaling does talk about sense of ownership. Hehehe. I actually liked writing about this because I never really thought about scrapping this particular statement until the challenge. Now I'm glad I did. :-) And it makes me glad I'm with Journaling Junkie. :-)


Title: What's Mine is Yours

Journaling: When I stopped working and became a stay-at-home-mom, I found it harder to spend for myself. Aside from the difficulty of budgeting our single income, I would, most of the time, rather buy stuff for our growing family. But on occasional times when I would indulge myself with little trinkets, girly stuff or even scrapbook materials, your say the same thing --- WHAT'S MINE IS YOURS, assuring me that it's okay to pamper myself too. Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for your love. Thank you for making me feel worthy. I love you!

By the way, I used Studio Azul's August kit for this layout. :-)

Hello beautiful!

And beautiful they are! Get this collection for free by checking it out here!

Sweet Daughter

I'm almost done filling up Alyssa's first 12x12 album. That means my backlog is slowly getting less. (I wish!) That also means I need more albums. Hahaha! More shopping? :-) Here's a layout when Alyssa turned 7 months. :-)


Title: Sweet Daughter

Materials: K&Co papers, Bazzil cardstock, Heidi Swapp flower, Autumn Leaves stamp, Colorbox Ink, Fiskars Lace Border Puncher, Prima flowers, AMM brads, Karen Foster loopy brads, Staedler pen, Others: fiber

You Know Love

Title: You Know Love

Journaling: It is evident in your eyes, the way you smile and how you react to things. You have this quiet confidence in you that shows clearly that YOU KNOW LOVE. And you most certainly do because you are surrounded by it. Your sisters obviously adore you and constantly hug and kiss you. Your dad and I can't seem to get enough of you. Indeed you are much loved. And you know it.

Materials: Scrapworks and Basic Grey patterned papers, Scenic Route chipboard letters, Prima Say it With Crystals, Prima flowers, DCWV brads, Craft Express rubons, others: journaling paper, flower die cut, buttons foam.

A Mini Book for Mabel

My sister, Mabel, turned a year older yesterday. My girls and I decided to make a mini book for her. Great timing because I really thought of making one for Bookoto's challenge to create a mini. :-) I bought ID plastic covers from the local bookstore, put them together and used this for my album. Perfect brag book for the bag!

Nadine did the lettering using a Staedler pen. I was so impressed how she made them. Looks like I truly have an artist in my hands. :-)


Title: What We Love About You

Journaling:
You teach us
You buy as chips
You take care of us
You take us to the movies
You give us a bath
You make us laugh
You love us

Materials: ID plastic covers, cardstock, Fancy Pants patterned papers, Prima flowers, Autumn Leaves flourish stamps, Colorbox ink, Staedler pen, ribbon, Corner Rounder puncher

Big Swimmin' Deal

Last July my older girls, Nadine and Raya, begged to begin swimming classes. Being a swimmer myself, I couldn't say no to that! I was thrilled that they themselves asked for it. Especially Nadine who used to be afraid to put her head in the water. Now, Nadine has been swimming awesomely! She actually knows the freestyle already! Here's my layout for her big achievement. I am just so proud of her.


Title: big Swimmin' deal

Journaling: I can't believe it! Last year, you were so afraid to put your head in the water. And now you're doing freestyle?! Wow! It's a big swimmin' deal. And I am so proud of you! I love you!

Materials: DCWV cardstock and patterned paper, Making Memories Stamps and Acrylic Paint, MME journaling paper, Staedler pen, Others: buttons, ricrac, staples, rub ons

Secrets

There's a raffle contest over at Journaling Junkie! Any submission for any of the October challenges (starting with 37) will give you a ticket in the draw. DT member, Shannon, is sponsoring the October prize. :-)

Challenge 37 is about Secrets: Do you have a secret? Is it something lighthearted and silly like your secret love of the Spice Girls or it is something deeper and darker? Has a secret that was revealed changed the course of your life? Or do you not believe in secrets?

My take of the challenge is an old layout of mine but one of my favorites.


Journaling: I love this picture of my two older girls. They seem to be sharing something they don't want the world to know. Some secret that's just between the two of them. I love watching them whispering to each other then giggling afterwards. I always wonder what they are talking about. I'm glad they have each other to share their secrets with.

Mia @ 35 - An ABC Album

This is a 6x6 album I created to commemorate my 35th year. My birthday was last February but as early as January, I had been planning to create this. And finally I have succeeded in finishing the album! The album is in ABC format. I just listed things that I am thankful for. Here is a glimpse of all my blessings. :-)

Title: Mia @ 35
Materials: Bazzil cardstock, Prima papers and flowers, Queen&Co. brads, Inque Boutique letter stamps, American Crafts stickers, Fiskars Lace Puncher, Carl Corner Rounder, Staedler Pen, Colorbox ink, Acrylic letters
Journaling: God has been so good to me. Thirty-five years of life, love and laughter. I created this ABC album to document a glimpse of these blessings. There is just so much to be thankful for.

A - Alyssa, so adorable!
B - Breastfeeding and bonding and bliss!
C - Carrier a.k.a. sling or pouch
D - Daughters, all three of them
E - Embrace
F - Friends
G - Good Health
H - Home, our first!
I - Imagination and creativity
J - Journals a.k.a. my scrapbooks and layouts
K - Kisses
L - Lechon from Cagayan de Oro
M - Married to Mier, my bestfriend
N - Nadine, my beautiful firstborn
O - Out of Town trips
P - Parents for their support and generosity
Q - Quiet Moments
R - Raya, my precious princess
S - Sisters, Mabel and Marla
T - Thirty toes -- perfection!
U - Unconditional Love
V - Voices of my girls -- talking, singing, laughing
W - Water
X - Xtraordinary children
Y - Years, 35 to be exact
Z - Zzz, time to sleep, time for me to scrap!

Yum!

I know, I know! I haven't posted in a week! Not that I haven't been scrapping, mind you. I'm almost done with a mini album that has taken months in the planning and a week in execution! Hope to be able to upload it soon. I am excited about it! :-) In the meantime, here is a layout about my little Alyssa. This is actually six months behind since she actually started eating solids at 6 months and she is now a year old already. Yes, I do have a lot of backlog. Well, will be able to tackle them slowly but surely. Thanks for looking!


Title: Yum

Journaling: You started eating solids at 6 months. Nadine and Raya were the ones excited for you. Your first food was organic red rice which you loved. Then you discovered squash, applesauce, sweet potatoes and tofu. Surprisingly, you completely dislike bananas. :-)

Busy Busy Weekend

Had a very prolific scrapping weekend! I joined Scrappin Kids Weekend Challenge (September 19-21) and was able to finish all seven challenges in three days (five layouts, one card and one altered item). Phew! A little tiring because had to work late in the night (the only time everyone is asleep and I'm able to work without being disturbed. LOL!) but I'm just glad that I was able to get good scrapping done.

1. Issa's challenge was to have 50% white space and use only five scrapping elements in the layout. I used paper, flowers, stamps, brads and ink. Here's my take:


2. Liza's challenge was to create a MULTI PHOTO Layout using ONLY Cardstocks. (No Patterned Papers are allowed on the whole Layout). This is what I came up with:


3. Cookie's challenge was to create a layout using stamps or rubons. Was just glad to be able to make use of a lot of my stamps and rub ons. Here's what I made:


4. Jazz challenged us to use strips of patterned paper or stripes in our layouts. This is what I created:


5. Wati asked us to scraplift a layout she created. It was a beautiful layout and this is my interpretation:


6. Jessy's challenge was to alter any item using the colors pink, red, black and white. I decided to alter my bookends at home. This is what came out:


7. The last challenge was to create a card using a stamp image. Wati's son, Adam, would be the judge for this challenge. This is what I made:


It was a great weekend. Thank you to all the the RD and DT of Scrappin Kids. Looking forward to the next weekend challenge. :-)