Scrapbooking My Faith

I have been raised by a devout Catholic mom.  We go to church every Sunday.  I was educated in Catholic schools from kindergarten until college.  My faith has anchored me through life's most difficult situations.  My faith played a huge part in my decision-making.  My faith gave me hope and encouragement when I need them the most.  

Surprisingly enough, my faith is the one area in my life I least scrapbook about.  Just recently, I took an online class about scrapbooking my faith by Courtney Walsh.  I also bought her book, Scrapbooking Your Faith, in hope of getting faith into our scrapbooks more.  I want my children to read my thoughts, give them encouragement and strength to look up when they feel so down, to say a lot of a little prayers, to be mindful of the God that will provide for them and keep them safe.  I want them to have a personal relationship with God like I did.  

Here are the three layouts I did.  I have another layout that is much too personal that I'd rather keep to myself.  

Template - Scrap Orchard; Papers - Princesa Kit by Jessica Sprague; Journaling Strips - Crystal Wilkerson; Quote Fonts - Georgia and Zapfino; Journaling Font - Pea Marie Christine; Date Font - Myriad Pro

Template - Scrap Orchard; Papers - This Week by Carla Dudley; Title Font - Big Mummy; Journaling Font - my own handwriting

Template - Anna Aspnes; Paper - Nancy Rowe Janitz; Journaling Strips - Crystal Wilkerson; Journaling Font - my own handwriting; Title Font - Carpenter ICG and Big Mummy; Amen font - Zapfino; Date Font - Rockwell Extra Bold


The following photos + words are sized 4x6 that contain passages and quotes that moved me, encouraged me, strengthened me, touched me.  Some of these quotes were taken from Pinterest.  I am printing them as 4x6s, slipping them into an ongoing album which I'll keep adding into.  I have made use of the landscape photos I've taken over the years.  My hope for doing this is that my children will someday find strength, encouragement, hope, and faith in reading these passages and quotes.   

If you haven't done so already, I encourage you to scrapbook about your faith (if you're a scrapbooker like me), or write about it in a journal.  You never know who among your family will one day need a lift, and maybe that's the type of encouragement that will change their lives for the better.  

Landscapes

I first fell in love with photography when I used to take landscape photos of places I've traveled.  I am always amazed at the beautiful scenery before me, and would try to capture them with my camera.  It is overwhelming to know that God's mighty hand created these beautiful landscapes.  Our most recent trip to the beautiful Sedona and Grand Canyon in Arizona, the breathtaking Valley of Fire in Nevada, are proofs that God is an excellent sculptor and artist.  I was in awe of the beautiful rock formations that surrounded us.

We left home and drove for Las Vegas on Christmas Eve, exactly at 12mn.  We arrived in Vegas by 10:30am, rested and laid low on Christmas Day, and had dinner at Rainforest Cafe.  The next day, the 26th of December, we were up early to drive to Sedona.  Along the way, this beautiful sight inspired us to get going:
   

   
We got to Sedona around 1pm (2pm in Arizona because it was on Central time).  We dropped by Sliding Rock State Park and stretched out to this amazing scenario:

 
We stayed for the night.  Thank God that we found affordable lodging even without prior reservation.  We had dinner and retired to bed early, to be able to rise up early and explore more of Sedona before heading to the Grand Canyon.

After a couple of hours or so, we reached the Grand Canyon and explored these breath-taking sceneries:

We left the Grand Canyon with a heavy heart, but with a promise that we'll be back to explore more someday, when the kids are a little more grown and wouldn't complain from walking too much.  After all, it was a bit chilly when we were there.

We returned to our hotel in Las Vegas and made plans to visit the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada the very next day.  We were in shock that even with the Valley's unmistakable charm, it was only a State Park.  It would've passed as a National Park in our standards, except it was a bit small.

These are even similar rock formations to those of The Arches National Park in Utah:

So, in a span of 5 days, we've managed to go through 3 states - California, Nevada, Arizona; one National Park - The Grand Canyon; two State Parks - Falling Rock in Sedona, AZ and Valley of Fire in NV.  You'd think we were done for this leg of the trip.  Uhm, not really.  On our way home, we decided to visit another National Park in California - Death Valley.  There really wasn't much to see, though we have only visited for a day.  We spent the night a couple of hours outside the park before heading home the next day.  If I've shown you proofs that God is truly a marvelous sculptor, you will be even more amazed at the paintings He created with the sky as his canvas and the setting sun as his pallette with the following images:

I am not truly an outdoor type of person, but these sceneries converted me.  When we were planning this vacation, it was a toss between theme parks and national parks and we were grateful we decided to go with the latter.  It gave us a sense of peace, tranquility, and appreciation of the beauty that surrounded us.  It humbled me, centered me, and made me realize the power that made all these possible.  We wanted our children to share this deep appreciation of nature, to instill in them the importance of taking care of their environment so their offsprings will be able to enjoy the same sceneries.

I know that this blog has been silent for a very long time, but what better time to post an entry with images like these?  I am definitely in love with photography, and the love affair with my camera continues.

A blessed new year to all of you from our family to yours!

Lastly, to my beloved first-born, happy, happy birthday 6th birthday K!  The day you were born, you brought with you joy beyond imagination and challenge beyond comprehension.  I cannot believe how fast you're growing.  We love you so, so much!

Remember, Celebrate, Appreciate, Live, Love

Yesterday's Oprah show feature on Erin Kramp touched me to the core.  Though she was battling breast cancer at that time, she summoned the courage to record hours upon hours of video for her daughter and her husband.  Her final words summed up why she did all this - TO BE REMEMBERED.

As a mother, Erin's story resonated with me.  I also have an overflowing love for my boys and I have so much to tell them.  Perhaps we just chose different mediums, but we want the end result to be the same - so that we can be remembered.

Photography and scrapbooking has enriched my life in unimaginable ways.  Sure, I get tired and I should probably just use the extra time I have resting and sleeping rather than scrapbooking.  It makes me happy though.  Scrapbooking gives me a deeper appreciation of life.  It allows me to celebrate our everyday.  It gives me the chance to record moments so that they will be remembered.  It allows me to speak to my boys and tell them just how much I love them.  It gives me the opportunity to teach them lessons.

I am proud to say I'm a mom with a camera, always hunting for memories to capture so they can be recorded, documented, and re-lived.

Live life.  Celebrate the everyday.  Appreciate the blessings.  Share the love.  Treasure the moments.  Life is beautiful!

Of course I couldn't end a post without sharing something.  In this case, a layout of Calix's milestones and personality at age three:

Template - CT Rachael Sheedy from www.digilovely.com; Papers - Little Boy by Echo Park; Paper Clip and Tag - Cutie Pie by Sir Scrapalot; Staple - Pattie Knox; Fonts - Zapfino, Ali Edward's Handwriting, Comic Sans MS (Title), Myriad Pro (journaling)

A beautiful mom-to-be

Tex and I have been friends since 2005 when we met via newlyweds@work (n@w).  We have exchanged countless emails since then, and finally met in person when they migrated to the US.  She is currently pregnant with their second child.  I offered to shoot her maternity portraits because I believe that every woman should have a remembrance of their baby bump.  She looked so beautiful at 7.5 months in her pregnancy.  Here are some of my favorites:

You can see the rest of the photos here.

I am by no means a professional photographer.  I am just a mom who enjoys taking photos, telling stories and documenting our lives through scrapbooking.  I have spent a considerable amount of time getting to know my camera, and learning how to take better photos.  I am a girl who never thought I can do anything creative, until I discovered my love for photography and my passion for scrapbooking.   

Congratulations, Tex, Bong and Kyle!  We can't wait to meet Kirk! 

Boys and their Bikes

Kail has learned to ride his bike without training wheels in just two days.  He started to learn when hubz took off the pedal on his bike so he can balance.  A day later, he can ride with his feet up!  Now he can ride fast and longer distance without training wheels.  Here's the evidence:

Calix is also starting to put his feet up so we think it's just a matter of time and he can probably ride without training wheels as well:

If I could only learn to do the same... :)

The Royal Wedding

I was almost 8 years old in 1981 when I first witnessed a royal wedding on TV.  I didn’t know who it was, I just know that it was a big deal with everyone around me.  My aunts were glued to the TV, and I saw this beautiful woman walking down the aisle wearing a gorgeous white dress with a very long train.  I asked my aunt who it was and she answered “she’s Princess Diana – she’s going to marry Prince Charles!”  That definitely piqued my interest because up until that time, I’ve only read about Princes and Princesses on fairy tale books.  I have never seen them in real life.  It was then that my imagination came to life.  I’ve dreamt about being a Princess, even practiced the walk and the wave when nobody else is looking. Of course, real life kicked in for Prince Charles and Princess Diana and they divorced in 1996.

 Last Friday, April 29, I witnessed another royal union.  This time, I am a lot more aware of what was going on around me.  Prince William (Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s eldest son) married a commoner, Kate Middleton.  The world watched their fairly tale unfold.  Despite the number of devastating events surrounding the news lately, their wedding was definitely a feel-good event.  I can’t help but smile whenever I see them kiss (and mind you, I’ve watched that a lot of times already).  Their look speak of love.  I am praying that theirs is a happily ever after one.

Layers, lots and lots of it

I have always admired scrapbookers who can layer patterned papers, embellishments, texts, fonts!  They're not my style but they're still eye candy to me.  I'm a clean and simple, graphic and linear, fast and easy scrapbooker.  It is very challenging for me to create intricate layouts because I'm afraid of overpowering the focus on words and photos.

Just recently, I came across template designer Cindy Schneider from this post.  She creates the most intricate digital templates.  Luckily, I have a couple of her templates in my arsenal which I got for free so I decided to try one of them out last night.  The whole process took me an hour and a half but I love how it turned out!  Sure, this isn't normally my style because I'd rather create simple layouts with lots of journaling.  However, on times (like last night) when I want to play, it's nice to know that her designs allow for that.  The only downside with this is that I couldn't write long journaling, but in times when I have very little to say, this is perfect!

Template - Cindy Schneider; Papers and Embellishments - Memories by Sweet Shoppe Designs; Journaling Tag - County Fair Journaling Tag by Elle Studio; Fonts - Papyrus (journaling), VT Portable Remington and Scriptina (Title)