Happy Pre-Halloween!

Hey there...

It's almost Halloween!  I know most people have enjoyed Halloween parties since last weekend... but the real day is Oct. 31st!!!!

You know?  I really enjoy Halloween. And I respect a lot that some people don't celebrate this day because of its origins... but I also think there are some things that have the meaning that you want to give them...  All is in you... in the things you do with what you have and what you believe, and how you turn "anything" into a "positive something".

We will dress up at work and we are going to have so much fun... I will share photos later but don't want to ruin the surprise telling you about it in advance.

So... to get into the mood, let me show you a double page layout with photos of a past Halloween.

I used a lot of paint, stamps, patterned paper... and so many details for these pages.  I enjoyed the process...  yeah!

For the "H" in the title, I used pattenerd paper, and added sections from a journaling card I've got with an Unity Stamp Co. order.

I also created some spots with elements referring to specific photos.  These stamped "sweetheart" messages with the "live each moment" one, and the heart, are all Unity Stamp Co, stamps right below a photo of my DH and me. 

And this journaling card is referring to a photo where all the girls are posing.  Note the word "fun", the "ribbon" and the "Girls just wanna have fun" message are three different stamps.

I also supported the balance of the page with background stamps (Glitz Designs) and rubons metalic gold spots... and paint... 

Here's the whole left page... another Unity stamp spotted (ticket date).

And here the right side one!

And here's how they look together.

Well... hope you liked it.  And as I told you... I enjoyed making it... and I love how imperfect it looks.  

Have a greaat Halloween!!!

Autumn Leaves Card

It is that day of the week again and I am very happy.

This week has been intense because so many things have happened. I came back to work from a short vacation and there is a lot to do at the office... OMG!  But that's good, you know.  I have a job.. and I love what I do... even though it can be very stressful.  I've been also dealing with an allergy I got during vacation... must have been the combination of the sun and a body mist I used the first day... The allergy was all over my body but I specially worried about my eyes.  I can say today they look a lot better and the itching has decreased but they were very red, itchy and wrinkled.  Such is life!

And I feel I've been missed... some coworkers have come to my office to tell me so.  And some have come for advice.  I've felt people appreciate my words.  And I've felt God has helped me express words that can be relief for others.  It's a good feeling.  Thank you God.

And enough of the "feelings"... Let me show you a card I made a while ago and it was published in the recent issue of the "Papeles y Más" magazine.

I cut some leaves with the Cricut machine, embossed with the Cuttlebug, inked and arranges as they were falling.  Used a sentiment stamp from Unity Stamp Co. (I really love Unity Stamp Co... It seems that I'm always talking about them... they are not paying me, I swear... It's just love!).

I loved the result and now that it has been published I can share it with you.  Hope you like it too... and please leave a comment telling me how was your week... 

I'm going to link this post to the Friday's Friends with Flair at Unity... so you commenting will also give you the opportunity to win some goodies... Wooo hooo!!!!

Have a great weekend... Halloween coming (OMG I need to get my costume soon...).

More of the "Be Inspired" Challenge...

Just a quick stop to share a CAS card I impulsively made tonight...  This hobby is really relaxing for me and sometimes, even though I'm tired, I'm in the need of creating.  So, I went "to bed" but deviated before arriving to my room and stopped by in my hobby room and had to make this card. 

It had to be quick and special so I got inspired by the card sketch from the Unity BE Inspired challenge.  I already posted a card using the color combo inspiration HERE, but for this one I used the sketch.

I stamped the big snowflake and used silver embossing powder to make it shine.

Applied several washi and decorative tapes (AC and Martha Stewart's) and stamped the sentiment as well.  Both the snowflake and the sentiment are stamps from Unity Stamp Co.

I really like the simplicity of the card and how delicate and beautiful it looks at the same time.

I will link this one to Unity Stamp Co. (Be Inspired Challenge) too...  

Hope you have a special, unique and beautiful second half of the week!!!...  Make this Thursday a Pre-weekend awesome day!...  Tks for your comments.  

A Christmas card for Unity Inspiration Challenge

Hey friends...  Happy day!

Here's a card I made for the Unity Inspired Challenge.  I have to start making Christmas cards and projects or I will end up with just a couple of cards when Santa comes to town.  So I am using the challenges and pending projects to reflect some Xmas spirit.

I loved this challenge because of the combination of colors provided for inspiration.  Lovely!

I used a cream cardstock base and arranged red and green for layering.  Then used the mint (lighter) green with a brown with stripes patterned paper and some bakers twine as the top layer before I placed the doily.

This sentiment is beautiful and I love the artistic way it is designed.  I stamped it in red and colored the tree part with watercolor pencils.  Also added a gem in the tree and also some at the top left corner to provide balance... along with the tab at the bottom right.  Also added some glossy accents in some key points of the sentiment stamped and ended with some ink in the edges of the card.

I love my card.  I think I used the right colors provided in the challenge and I'm linking it right away... 

Tks for stopping by and please leave me a comment.  I really enjoy reading them.

I am a published scrapbooker!

Happy Friday!

Remember I told you about the Papeles y Más magazine?  HERE is the post about it.  And today I will share one project I exclusively made for this magazine and was already published in last issue.

It was a party favor I hand-made and embellished with the Halloween theme.  You can find the list of materials and instructions in the magazine.

The main image... this cute witch, is a stamp from Unity Stamp Co.  I love it!

Tks for stopping by.

Papeles y Más

Hey there!

Let me tell you about the "Papeles y Más" magazine.  A Puerto Rico's scrapbooking magazine that is provoking a real revolution in this hobby's world locally.  There's a lot of talent in our island and this magazine has provided room for different styles.  It is also very valuable because there are just a few sources of inspiration in Spanish around the world and our language is kind of different vs Latin America and Spain.  We have a lot of influence from US and even our measures are using the English system...  We are unique... we are Puerto Ricans!  So this magazine is covering for a lot of needs... and is awesome!

Mari Esposito is the leader behind this beautiful magazine that has published for almost 2 years.  She's a very genuine person and she really understands scrapbooking is about diversity of styles, there's no right or wrong but lots of heart and fun when making a project.  She's also very organized and responsible, qualities I really appreciate a lot.  Tks Mari!

I've collaborated with the magazine in the last two issues and I've been published.  I feel that this being a local effort, we have certain responsibility to support somehow.  Not only buying the magazine, but also spreading the word and in my case, helping to generate content they can publish.

 I will share some of those projects I've had published, in future posts... but today I wanted to share great news with you.  The magazine has its first Design Team to be featured in next issue (December)... and... I was invited to be part of it!!!  Isn't that amazing? I'm so blessed to have the trust of Mari and her team... and I am going to have so much so much so much fun!!!!

We met the entire team last weekend.

We have people from different towns of our beautiful Island. I already knew some of them or have heard about them but it was really exciting to meet them in person and share for a little while.  Some of these girls have a long trajectory in this hobby and for some this is a business...  

We even had an individual shooting... 

... and I had to see how the photo turned out, you know!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can enjoy this magazine.  You can get information in this Facebook page HERE.   Talking about Facebook... I will soon have a Wine, Cheese & Scrapbooking fan-page in Facebook...  Pending to details coming soon.

Bye bye!

Live your life... and forget your (my) age!

Dear friends...

As you have read in my recent posts, I had a birthday recently!  I'm a very grateful for God's blessings and to celebrate life is a way of saying Thanks... and have some fun too!  I feel that even though there are things in my life I wish I had, the others I do have are the ones that really matter.  Besides, the things we don't have are the ones that make us stronger to keep fighting or persevering to accomplish them or other new things we don't even expect.  Do I make sense?  Well... the thing is that I've celebrated my birthday in different ways... and will keep on celebrating every day of October.

I've had small "get together" activities to celebrate.  With my friend (mother of my goddaughter) at her home, then with mom the day before my birthday, at work with a nice lunch with my coworkers and friends, and many more...  But then, I had an official "get together" last Saturday at the lobby of one of my favorites hotels in the island...

And because this blog is mainly about scrap booking I have to show what I made...

Very simple, but I had to put my personal touch to some of the elements in the party.

The theme of the birthday was the use of damask in the elements.  My digital invitation featured damasks in different colors combined with silver sequins and the message "Live your life... and forget your age!".

Since we decided to give cupcakes to go instead of a cake (easier when you are hanging out, drinking or simply in another party mood, you know?)... I embellished the boxes with stamped damasks in a punched circle over card-stock or patterned paper.  Each combination of damasks, colors and papers was different.

In mass production we placed the cupcakes in the boxes with doilies.  

At the event, we arranged them to simulate a cake.  We had to be watching other people wanting to get them thinking they were free giveaways...LOL!

I also gave a scented candle in a jar as a token of appreciation to the people in my party.  I printed the damask and the theme and combined with lace or silver ribbon and sequins to embellish.  Also stamped a damask in a punched circle which I also embossed and painted the surface for dimension.  That was to embellish the lid.

Here's my DH arranging them at the party...

Symmetrically...of course... OCD!  LOL!!!!!

We welcomed the guests with mojitos and  provided for some finger food or appetizers during the night.  As they left, they received the cupcake in a box and the candle.

And... let me share some photos to mark the 45 years celebration event in my life... just for fun...

This is me with my husband.

Here.. with some friends...

A closer look with some of the girls.

Hanging out with some others...

And of course... with a glass of wine!  I went with white that night to keep me refreshed.  It was a Chilean Chardonnay... hotel's house wine.  Pretty good!

Tks for stopping by and tks for your comments.  Keep enjoying life!!!

Dear Friday: You Simply Shine!

Hello everybody.

Today I am sharing two layouts I made as part of the First Communion album from my friend's son.  Remember?  I've told you about it in several past posts:  HERE and HERE2.  It's the album I did not want to make all the pages talking about the Communion itself so I tried to give each one a different focus and personality.

For this one I cut cardstock and patterned paper to simulate a very colorful sun.  Also used some ribbon, ink and of course... stamps.  Both these stamps are from Unity Stamp Co.  Some of the punched circles are placed in 3D for great dimension.

And this one is the one I positioned at the end of the album.  It's the one to preserve the program of the day as memorabilia.  I simply framed it with some elements.  The shaped cardstock at left was freely hand cut in white, punched the little holes with the Crop-o-dile, and then glued to black cardstock to cut slightly in the outside leaving an edge.

For the tag, I hand cut the shape, and stamped the sentiment  in white and applied embossing powder for heat embossing.  I embellished with a cutout made with the Cricut Machine.  Also used edge puncher for the black strip below.

I love using stamps for journaling, titles or making my own embellishments.  These are pretty simple pages made as part of an entire album and they are unique for the person to preserve the memories.

On a separate note...I have to tell you it's been hot in here... OMG... so humid.  I think we've had warmer weather in September and October, than during the Summer.  If you are wishing for some warm weather, come to Puerto Rico.

And it is Friday again!  It's a very special Friday... as everyday should be.  My birthday was last Monday, and we plan to celebrate tomorrow... Let's party!  And I will also have a week off from work next week, so today might be intense at the office since when you know you are leaving for a while, you will definitely find a lot of things to get done before leaving... right?

What do you plan to do this weekend?  Tell me about it.  Share it with me.  And let me know how you liked the pages and the stamps.  By leaving a comment, you might end up winning something from Unity Stamp Co. since this post will be linked to Friday's Friends with Flair.  Tks for stopping by.

...As happy as you choose to be...

Hello dear friends...

Today is the first Friday of my favorite month...  This is my birthday month... it's usually the month during I most probably can take some vacation time...it's also Halloween month... and I have decided to have a lot of fun this year for sure.  I will be as happy as I choose to be...  I actually plan to document every day of this month and make a mini album...  Let's see the result next month... :)...   Don't blame me if the project evolves and I end up doing something else... it's part of the process... and I need to enjoy it...LOL!

Anyway, I thought it would be nice I share here a tag I made for Unity Show & Tell facebook page last week so more people can see it and hopefully get inspired, as I definitely got inspired by others.  There were so many gorgeous tags made by all Unity Stamp Co. followers... It was awesome!

Mine was made by creating a background with Distress Stain and inks...

I then stamped this nice sentiment which I love...  but also stamped it in different patterned papers to cut the letters and create a collage of colors and textures by paper piecing it... Yep, it was fun doing it!

I added a letter "e" at the end... so instead of "YOU are as HAPPY as you choose TO BE", it reads "BEE".   That gave me permission to add this beautiful bee placed with 3D foam squares to make her pop out.  I stamped it separately, colored it, added some glossy accents, and... Of course, this fabulous bee has glitter... She shines!!!

A couple of more stamped images here and there... and washi tapes at the bottom, and some fiber to complete the happy tag.  I think it is very cheerful.  I plan to use it for a card, or maybe as journaling in one of my pages... who knows?

I hope you liked it, and don't forget to comment for the opportunity to win great stuff from Unity Friends with Flair...

Happy Friday...  Happy weekend... Happy Month!  Choose HAPPY today.