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)

A couple of layouts and a Template Freebie

I wanted to scrapbook Kail's speech and language progress but couldn't find a digital template that had ample space for long journaling so I created my own.  I wanted the template to be simple since my focus would be on the photos and the journaling.  Here is the layout I came up with:

Credits - Papers and Flower/Ribbon Embellishment - Sweet Heart Collection by Jodie Lee at www.jessicasprague.com; Date Tag - Photo Tabs by Elle Studio at www.jessicasprague.com; Font - Cafe Rojo (title) from www.kevinandamanda.com and applied Burntwood Action from www.atomiccupcake.com, Century Gothic (Journaling), Papyrus (Date)

Here is the freebie template:

You can download this from here.

Here is another layout I completed last night using Digi Lovely's Template Tuesday:

Template - CT Brenda Neuberger from www.digilovely.com; Papers - Think Spring by Splendid Fiins from www.jessicasprague.com; Flower Element - Sweet Spring by Karen Funk from www.designhousedigital.com; Fonts - Century Gothic (date and journaling), Ali Edwards Handwriting and Cry Kitty (title) from www.kevinandamanda.com

Pope John Paul II

I grew up knowing Pope John Paul II as the Catholic Church's leader.  He had been to the Philippines a few times.  I have always wanted to see him whenever he went, but didn't get the chance.  Besides, it'll be a miracle to even get near him, with the myriad of people showing up everywhere he went.  I was told, by a few people I know who got a glimpse of him, you'd feel goosebumps and an overwhelming feeling of peace and joy whenever he'd pass by.

In April 2, 2005, he passed away, leaving all Catholics around the world in sorrow.  He was probably the most loved, the most visible and the most popular Pope that he was missed immediately.  I was on my way to the Philippines at that time, and I knew in my heart that he will definitely be canonized as a saint soon, because of his amazing work as God's servant.  During the flight home, I prayed for his intercession.  Hubz and I have both been praying and hoping for a baby.  I asked him to intercede for us.  With this prayer was the hope that we'd get the chance to witness his canonization when that time comes.  When I came back to the U.S., I was already pregnant with Kail.  I firmly believed in my heart that he interceded for us and I will be forever grateful.

On Sunday, May 1, six years after his passing, Pope John Paul II will be beatified, the first step towards becoming a saint.  He has touched our lives, despite not having been able to come near him while he was alive.

My Evolution as a Life Artist

I got introduced to scrapbooking in 2004 by a good friend, Christine.  Back then, it was therapeutic for me, being in a long distance marriage at that time.  I also wanted to scrapbook the dozens of photos we have of our wedding.  Here is my very first attempt, and one of my all-time favorites at that (photos by Chito Vecina)!

Up until 2008, I was a paper scrapbooker.  I have tons of scrapbooking supplies that fills up an entire room in our house.  Sadly, I'm more of a hoarder than a scrapbooker because I tend to buy more than I am able to churn out pages.  I love the high of getting my hands on the latest and greatest product.  I love the feel of paper in my hands.  From 2004 until 2007, I have created 64 paper layouts.  In fact, here is the last paper layout I created way back in 2007:

But let's face it, I'm a wife and a mom first and foremost.  I also have a very demanding full time job and I have a household to run.  I do not have the luxury of sitting down for hours on end just to plan and create a single layout, and then spend another hour or so cleaning up the mess.  I also cannot lay all my supplies on the floor without my kids playing along and contributing to the mess, which was why I basically stopped creating layouts, but continued to accumulate supplies. 

In 2008, I ventured into digital scrapbooking when I created layouts for Calix's first birthday guestbook which you can find here. As you can see, the photos looked awkward because I didn't know how to size them properly at that time, but I was immediately hooked!  I love that everything I needed was right at my computer.  I can re-use my favorite papers and supplies over and over again.  I do not have to make a mess of the room, and spend considerable amount of time cleaning up afterwards.  I love that my layouts are not bulky anymore.  My husband has been constantly teasing me that I'd probably need to rent storage space for all my albums.  Now, I can fit 60 pages (the most I've done in a year) into a single 12x12 photobook, and print individual pages for my kids' respective albums.  I can easily print layouts in duplicates.  I can print photobooks of all the layouts I've created for the year for the grandparents to enjoy.  With the help of digital templates, I can easily whip up a layout in 30 minutes (give or take a few).  In fact, I have created a total of 103 individual pages and 5 photobooks to date since 2008 - December Daily 2009, 2009 Year in Review, A Week in the Life, Beautiful Evidence albums, plus Calix's first year layouts which I used in his guestbook.

I have definetely gone a long way since I first ventured into scrapbooking in 2004.  But, paper or digital, I continue to fulfill my main objective of documenting life, preserving memories and telling stories.  This is the one thing that will never change, even as I continue to evolve as a life artist.

The Power of Words

I first saw this video from the show 7 Live.  It showed exactly how powerful words can be.  This is why I rarely create a layout without journaling, and why I love reading.  Words have the power to move us, to change us, to motivate us, to heed us to take action.  Words are powerful.

On a related topic about words, here's a journaling-heavy layout I created from last night:

Template - Ali Edwards; Papers - Rainbow Sherbet by Crystal Wilkerson; Black Solid Paper - Ethan Solids by Michelle Martin; Title Font - Phoenix; Journaling Font - Courier; Date Font - Papyrus

Answered Prayers

Hubz and I got to see sex and the City 2 over the weekend.  I love the scene where Miranda and Charlotte were talking about being married and having kids.  In it, they somehow said that they love their kids but they sometimes wish they could get a break from them.  Charlotte even mentioned that she felt overwhelmed, even when she has help.  Then they did a toast to all women with kids who do not have any help available to them. 

I am one of those women.  Charlotte's overwhelmed feeling resonates with me.  Everyday, I pray for a few minutes alone so I can take a bath longer than my usual 5-10 minutes, and in peace.  Having time alone to do the things we love is a luxury for me and my husband these days.  We are numb to chaos and noise.  Our day is full of laughter, tears, screaming, arguing.  Rest comes when the boys are all deep asleep, only to do it all over again the next day. 

I remembered a teammate once said that the biggest mistake they ever did was allowed themselves to be outnumbered.  Yes, we are outnumbered but I wouldn't necessarily consider it a mistake.  We love these children so much, which is why we're willing to go through hell or high water to raise them up. 

To me, having children requires a balancing act worthy of an olympic gold medal.  Not having help while raising these kids - crazy to some, but reality to us.  In the Philippines, help is within reach.  In fact, almost all households in the Philippines has one to three household helpers.  Growing up, we are probably the only family there who do not have a helper.  My mom insisted on training us to do household chores by ourselves.  She taught us to cook, do the laundry, clean the house, do the dishes, iron the clothes.  I didn't enjoy those chores then, but when I lived on my own, I realized how invaluable those skills were.  I thought she was training us to become maids!  Little did I know that she was training us to be independent.  I got the most out of that bootcamp when I lived overseas, got married, and had kids. 

Thank you for the toast, Miranda and Charlotte.  It is okay to feel overwhelmed from time to time.  It is okay to tune out all the noise once in a while, for sanity's sake.  But everytime I ask myself if we are truly doing the right thing, I remind myself of an entry in my journal more than 10 years ago.  Back then, my life revolved around my job - working 24x7.  At that time, I was crying my heart out because all I wanted was to get married and have children so my life wouldn't revolve around work, and that even if I do work hard, I have my husband and kids for inspiration, and I know that I'm doing it for them.  So, on days when I feel I'm on the brink, these beautiful and angelic faces remind me that God answered my prayers so I have no reason to complain.

Project Life 2010

I have been doing Project Life since its introduction to the scrapbooking community in 2009.  Back then, I wasn't able to get a hold of the kit because it was sold out the first day it was offered, so I had to improvise.  Last year, however, there were enough kits produced so I was able to buy one.  It was definitely a time saver.  All that's left for me to do is edit the photos to add in the day and date, have them printed, insert them into their respective slots on the album, and write the journaling.  Voila, I have recorded our everyday lives in 2010!

What I love most about this project is that we can look back at the previous two years (we've been doing this for three years now) and still get amazed at the kids' growth, what we did, where we were, etc.  Even the boys love looking at these albums.

Those who know me well are aware of my passion for photography and scrapbooking.  These two allow me to document our lives, which, I hope would become invaluable in the future.  I am also encouraging those I know to do the same.  If you have no time for scrapbooking, then perhaps Project Life is for you.  The kit has been designed with efficiency and time in mind.  Everything you'll need is in the kit, all you have to do is take photos, print them, and put some journaling.  In our case, I'm also adding ephemeras in our album - teachers' emails, kids' artworks, enlarged photos, tickets, receipts, etc.  You can take a look at how Ali Edwards does it and you'll get the idea.

To give you an idea on the types of photos we include in our Project Life album, here's a video with a few of our photos.  Everywhere we go, I make sure I have a camera on hand, be it my iPhone camera or our handy dandy point and shoot, or our fancy DSLR.  Some photos might be blurry.  Though I care about getting the right exposure, sometimes, it is more important for me to capture the memory than to get it perfectly exposed.

Without further ado, here's a video of our Project Life 2010:

2011 Digital Layouts

It's unbelievable how long it had been since my last post. Blogging took a backseat in lieu of scrapbooking. Thus, I'm happy to report that I was able to create 60 layouts last year. Sadly though, I did not meet my goal to blog more.

Three months into 2011, I decided to do a total makeover of this long neglected blog, to hopefully encourage myself to post more often, though I will not commit to that. But I will share a photobook of all the digital layouts I created last year, yes, all 60 of them!

2010 was an eventful year as we welcomed the latest addition to our growing family. He joins his brothers to bring more adventure into our already hectic lives. To all those of you who are still reading my blog even after my long absence, thank you. I sincerely hope that you will hear from me more often (perhaps a post every three months or so, tee-hee!). But I dedicate this album to you. Because of my absence here, I am able to document our lives more. Cheers!

Click here to view this photo book larger

These days, I don't take as many photos as I used to anymore, and my computer and hard drive are thanking me for it. Perhaps it's because I have had better luck with my exposure. The more I think of it though, the more I'm convinced that I only take photos that resonate with me now, photos that speak to me. Take the shot below for instance. Among the dozen of photos I took of our camping trip this weekend, this one is my hands-down favorite. It's an emotional photo - one that speaks a thousand words. It describes the relationship between my husband and my son. The fact that it was taken with the light of the bonfire to illuminate it makes it even more dramatic. I'm also proud to say that this photo was untouched - it's a straight out of the camera shot.




I received this article in my inbox today and this summarizes why I am drawn to emotional photos these days:

"What I really hope you can do is find your true self in your next big image. You don’t have to concentrate on breaking the rules or being gaudy for shock value (Thank you Lady GaGa) – but try to focus on what you really want to say with your camera. Do you want to make images that last? Do you want to make images that really stand the test of time? Then be yourself. Shoot for yourself. Shoot what your heart wants you to shoot. Don’t just try to be cool for being cool’s sake. Be true."

Amen!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Like any parent, we struggle to be good parents every single day. We try to provide our children with a good home, a loving and caring environment. We discipline them. We want our kids to grow up with values and manners.

As a mom, I take pride in seeing my boys try help around the house. Kail's favorite lines these days are "Can I help?", "I want to help", "I'll do it". When he sees me preparing dinner, he would want to help out. He can drag loads of laundry down the stairs and even put them onto the washer. He helps me bring the folded laundry up to the rooms. He cleans up his mess (albeit with resistance at first).

Calix, on the other hand, is showing his type A personality this early. Whenever he sees dirt or food on the floor, he'd pick it up, hand it to me or daddy so we could throw it away. He loves to put things on their proper places. We were at a play area yesterday when he saw balls on the floor. He'd pick them up one by one, hand them to me so I can put them in proper places (and sometimes he does that himself). The moms who saw him cleaning up had smiles on their faces. I was a very proud mom!

I think that raising them up without help is a big plus in teaching them to do their part around the house. My mom taught us a very valuable lesson by not hiring help when we were growing up so we'll learn to do the chores. When I came to the US at 24 years old, I was very independent. I have no problems cooking, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, washing the dishes. I want to impart the same lesson to my children. I want them to be able to do things on their own and not rely on help to do things for them. After all, help is so out of reach for middle class families like us here in the US.