Crafts/DIY: Scrapbooking at Gourdo's with Ime Oranga

First things first. I love everything paper. So when an invitation to a scrapbooking event came up, I just couldn't not go. It was hosted by Gourdo's, a store that I absolutely love. It reminds me of World Market, focusing mainly on kitchen wares with a great selection of arts and crafts supplies.

The event was held at Bonifacio Global City, and it was a pretty intimate craft workshop with scrapbook guru Ime Oranga. Ime's a mom who started scrapbooking almost a decade ago. Her style is very shabby chic, and having no experience in scrapbooking ever, I was very excited to get my hands dirty and learn from one of the best.

Ime introduced us to mixed media scrapbooking, her favorite materials and supplies.

The event was about "after-the-holidays", and that morning, we went ahead to do some Halloween pages. Here is the inspiration.

Ime taught us the step-by-step on how to make it. Here we are, busy at ripping sheets of paper.

 

Here's Ime demonstrating how to create that distress background effect using stamps and an inkpad. This is a clear kind of stamp that you can position on an acetate block.

She also showed us on how to use stencils and some textured media. Oh, and I got to use a heat gun too!

The effect of the texture medium is three-dimensional. Oh, and do you see those multi-colored thingamajig at the bottom? That's called flocking powder. It's like felt dust with glitter. Yup, you can get it at Gourdo's.

Scrapbooking won't be complete without die-cuts. Check out this table full of Halloween-themed die-cut treasures.

I think I did an okay job.

The scrapbooking newbies with Ime.

Watch out for Gourdo's upcoming craft sessions. I just know they are going to be so much fun.


Gourdo's 
Unit G Bonifacio Entertainment Center,
Bonifacio Global City
Taguig City, MM

Like Gourdo's on Facebook

Baby: Of Birth Announcements and Family Pictures

I recently posted about Design vs. Love's Baby Collection, and the prints are gorgeous. They reminded me of the time when I had some birth announcements made when Allie was born. Personally, I love giving old-fashioned cards instead of e-cards and emails. I love having to hold something tangible.

Allie was just a few days old when I took photos of her sleeping, smiling while sleeping, awake, and all other states of lying down. I chose a few for the birth announcement folded card.

It seemed just yesterday when I had this made. Time really flies. My baby is now two and a half, and she loves to run, crawl, hide under tables, go up the slide, climb the stairs, try to jump (she can't yet haha), and do everything to test your patience. People say that my little girl is like a little boy in terms of kalikutan. Don't get me wrong, I love watching her do and try things on her own. She's very active.

When she turned one, she was just trying to walk then and it was easy for us to take photos with her. This was taken during her birthday party by a professional photographer.

A few months after, we took a trip to Seattle, and there she enjoyed the grassy parts of Chittenden Locks. Family pictures were getting rarer by that time because she can walk and run alone. But my nephew took this nice shot of us.

Our most recent one is this one taken from a phone (hahaha), by my sister. Allie now knows how to smile when asked. Before, each smile was purely coincidental.

I really should have our family pictures taken more often. I only have a handful, and I think it's not going to be enough. Allie is growing up too fast, and I want to capture moments when we're all together.

Related articles

• Love: The Day I Got Something from Love vs. Design

Event: Christchurch -- See Through My Eyes

Tom Hoare, 11 years, Mt Pleasant School – “Driving in my community is a lot harder than usual.”

Christchurch Children Tell Their Story in New Zealand Earthquake Photo Exhibit

 

The New Zealand Embassy, in cooperation with UNICEF, is bringing to Manila the photography exhibition entitled “Christchurch: See Through My Eyes”.

 

          The exhibition showcases photographs taken by 24 children from Christchurch, New Zealand, and illustrates how the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes affected their lives and communities.

Karina Croitoru, 11 years, St Martins School – “A little help from steel containers keep Sacred Heart Cathedral up.”

 

          New Zealand Ambassador to the Philippines Reuben Levermore said: “We hope that the exhibition will encourage people to reflect on how best to prepare for disasters, including here in the Philippines.”

 

          New Zealand is a long-standing development partner of the Philippines. The New Zealand Aid Programme supports disaster risk reduction and management projects in the Philippines aimed at building greater resilience against future disasters. New Zealand has also extended humanitarian assistance to communities affected by natural disasters, including Tropical Storms Bopha and Washi, which devastated parts of the southern Philippines in each of the past two years.  This includes support for UNICEF activities.  

 

          For his part, UNICEF Philippines Representative Tomoo Hozumi remarked: “The countries on the ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’ – be it the Philippines, New Zealand, or Japan – share the challenge of high susceptibility to major disasters, which is not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’. Forms of expressive activity, such as photography, help in the psychosocial recovery of the affected children. I hope this exhibition enhances understanding, compassion and commitment to disaster awareness and preparedness.”

 

          For the “See Through My Eyes” exhibition, the young photographers, aged 11 to 14, participated in workshops led by professional photographer and ICT educator Stuart Hale, from whom they learned basic skills for taking quality digital photos and how to compose a shot to communicate their thoughts and ideas. Every young photographer also provided a caption to their photos.

Jade Harrison-Best, 12 years, South New Brighton School – “This is my Earthquake Dog. We adopted her after February 22nd.”

 

“See Through My Eyes” will run from 21 June to 5 July 2013 at the Water Dragon Gallery, Yuchengco Museum in Makati City.

 

# # #

 

 

For further information, please contact:

New Zealand Embassy Manila, Telephone: 8915358

 

Mitch Duran, Communication Specialist, UNICEF Philippines, Telephone: 9010113;

Mobile: 09266942644; mpduran@unicef.org

Jingjing Romero, PR Consultant, STRATOS Inc., Telephone: 4332626;

Mobile: 09178532415; info@stratospr.com

Travel: Reminiscing Savannah in Pictures

Houses in Savannah --

Store window --

Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist --

Savannah College of Arts and Design (SCAD) Theater --

-- and my favorite,
River Street Sweets Candy Store --

Party: Photo Display

At Allie's party, I had a corner display of her weekly picture since her birth.

Photo by Resonance Photography

I used an old, white-washed birdcage, hung the photos using nylon string and tape, then decorated it further with the paper flowers I made.


Here are some other easy ways to display photos at parties:

{1} Twine / Clothespins

From casa sugar -- If your party is outdoors near some trees, get some twine and clothespins.

Image from casa sugar

{2} Clear glass containers

From bhg -- Use stuff you can find at home, like clear vases, glasses, carafes and insert a black and white photo. This is a great centerpiece idea.

Image from bhg

{3} Numbered photos

From nobiggie -- All you need are the photos and some tape. Okay, and a wall to stick them to.

Image from nobiggie

Book: Amy Atlas' Sweet Designs

It's no secret that love Amy Atlas and her work. Now, she's about to launch her new book, Sweet Designs, on April, and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

You can pre-order on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Party: Kiddie Party Suppliers - Photographers

Documenting a first birthday celebration, no matter how small it is, is very important to me. So, for Allie's first birthday celebration, we decided to get a professional kiddie event photographer.

Here is a list of Metro Manila kiddie party photographers I shortlisted from a huge list, complete with updated contact information and a sample of their work.

Have any of you tried any of them? Who's your favorite?


1. Ging Lorenzo - E: ging@ginglorenzo.com | C: +63917-852-5938 | Blog link
      Kiddie party rates start at P9,000

2. Ces Kasilag - C: +63917-540-7496 / +63922-823-7566

3. Michelle Morelos - E: michelle.morelos@gmail.com  | Facebook link 

   Kiddie party rates start at P5,000

4. Donna Tavora - E: resonance.kixtavora@gmail.com | C: +63922-882-8672 | Facebook link

   Kiddie party rates start at P7,000

Crafts/DIY: Holiday Photo

Fonts used: Pea Luzel, BonvenoCF Light

Design: Camera for Living Pictures

It's about time something like this became available. It's a camera that captures the entire light field, unlike conventional cameras that only let you get a single plane of light. That means that after taking a picture with this new camera, you can still focus and re-focus on different areas of the picture and get an entirely new photo. It's called the Lytro.

It comes in different colors.

It's tiny.

I want one. For $399 - $499 (depending on the memory), I think it's really affordable for a light-field camera.

Visit their website here and play around with the focus and re-focus here.

Baby: On hiatus

    
Pardon the lack of blog posts during the past few days. I was busy with this one.

I promise I'll be back soon!


P.S. Here is my post on maternity series, just in case you were wondering what the "40" stands for.    
    
    

Capture: Maternity Series

Even before I got pregnant, I already looked into maternity shots posted by professional photographers. One post from Ohdeedoh had me at hello.

I was so amazed by this one dude's creativity that I wanted a maternity series of my own too. Here's another one of his maternity series.

We only had so little time to spare and a minuscule budget; so my husband and I decided to just do it ourselves. Armed with our Canon S90 and few editing techniques, we were ready to go. I would have used my bigger camera here but since my husband is the one taking pictures, I said okay to the point-and-shoot.

Granted I do not have the photogenic quality of the photographer's wife, nor does my husband the photographer's skills, I think we've done the best we could have to capture each week of my pregnancy and highlight a major event that happened that week.

We still have around 9 photos and around 9 more pounds to go; but here are some of the pictures I like most.