A little introduction

A few introductions before I start on this blog. This is my second blog, the first one, talking about my life in general. This one on the other hand will focus on my hobby, scrapbooking. Currently, I'm doing it on the side. Given the fact that I have a demanding job that makes me stay in the office late, I can only scrapbook at night, and that is: (1) if kurt (my son) is already sleeping; (2) i still have plenty of time, like it's only 10pm (latest); (3) i'm in the mood. the first condition is a must. since i am scrapping in our room, kurt has to be sleeping already, otherwise, i can't get my supplies nor attempt to do something without him interrupting. second, i am a slow scrapper, everything takes time. first, i think of which among the 5R pictures I printed I'll scrap, then it takes me a lot of time to decide what papers to use, next, how i'm going to arrange everything in a page. this one takes me longest. choosing a picture can be done in one sitting. then the main paper at times can be decided on that night. but it's only one paper, few more nights are spent on choosing for other coordinating papers to use and it usually goes with how i intend to arrange everything in a page. i usually look at other scrapper's page for inspiration. my default inspiration? ria. i love looking at her pages. after checking all her los and still i can't think of anything I then check pia and iris LOs. if still nothing, i check some more, sometimes going back to my scrapbooking magazines. since i don't scrapbook everynight, usually only once or twice in a week. it takes me long to finish a page. since i went back to scrapbooking this may, i was only able to finish one page and is in progress with another page so i guess that takes me to 1 LO per month. tsk! tsk! tsk!

more intro, so when did i start with this hobby?
i attended a pregnancy convention/conference in 2004 sponsored by Smart Parenting Baby magazine (special mag circulation of Smart Parenting, I think wala na ngayon). it was held in Manila Galleria Suites (can't remember its exact name now), a whole day affair with free hotel lunch and tons of info and prizes. our give away/ souvenir that time is a paper bag full of scrapbooking supplies from All About Scrapbooking (AAS) of NBS and that started it all. I created LOs of my pregnancy test result, first checkup to confirm pregnancy, baby's ultrasound photos, my pregnancy photos and baby showers. i already completed these pages using AAS materials when i found out that there is an egroup dedicated for scrapbooking, scrapbooks-exchange (SE). this egroup then was a break away group from newlyweds@work, created so that discussions will be focused on scrapbooking. i was invited to this then exclusive group when i asked n@w about scrapbooking related questions. roslyn told me about this egroup and there i got invited. the moderator then was leirs and all members are nawies. that's where i learned that the los i created are not really time-safe since i used wrapping papers, ordinary papers, etc. that's where i learned the words acid-free and lignin-free. i was so frustrated about the LOs i created since it was not in page protected albums but i cannot transfer them anymore since i adhered everything directly on the pages.

during that time, the only store that sells true blue scrapbooking materials are Memory Box in Robinsons Galleria and Rustans so I emptied my pocket buying stuff there. i wasn't able to create new pages as i already gave birth then and was so busy being a mommy, my membership then with SE got terminated (there was a policy before that you have to be active otherwise, they'll remove you from the group). after a few months in 2005, i became a member again of SE and hoarded more materials from Memory Box and Smile. Then nun na nauso ang mga online shopping and Sahrie before would let us have our purchases be delivered to her house in the US then she'll charge us na lang for the shipping fee papunta dito sa Pinas. Di pa ko kasali sa nagpapabili nun. I content myself with looking for different papers in NBS, double checking whether it is acid free. My project then was kurt's monthly milestones. I use papers/embellies from AAS and think I finished 6 of it. I stopped scrapbooking again, I have accumulated a lot of stuff already that I don’t know where to store them anymore. Our room is getting smaller and smaller making way for more of kurt’s stuff. I also am having great difficulty in creating Los in our dining room table as it is a round-type with lazy susan in the middle so totally restricted in space, add the fact that it’s so hot in the dining room, I totally gave up. I packed all my scrapbook materials and dumped them in my room in my parent’s house in Batangas. I got sick in 2006, had a pneumonia that forced me to rest in Batangas (to be away from kurt) after being hospitalized. So that one week vacation gave me time to make a few pages of kurt’s milestones album (that included in the 6 completed pages). After that, no more. No scrapping, as much as I want to, I can no longer do that as all my supplies are in Batangas. That’s when I heard about digital scrapping. I realized that I think I’m more into it as I only need my laptop to do it. Then that became my obsession then, I downloaded free kits in the net and created six three 2-page 12x12 layouts, 6 pages in total. That definitely is faster than paper scrapping and easier. I got another stopper, I went to the US for a month so no digiscrapping that time. When I got back, I created my US album using digital and switched to 5x7 this time as I thought it is more practical since I can simply just print this in any photo printers compared to the 12x12 Los that would need special printing. After completing up to my LA trip, still with the East coast trip pending, I have to stop again as I have to go to US for a five-month long assignment. That’s my final stop in digi-scrapping as I cannot bring my personal laptop due to a lot of reasons. While there, I realized that I am in paper-scrapper’s haven. All the scrapbooks stores so nearby, and I can just order online and have it delivered to my apartment. That started me in scrapbook shopping again. I would regularly check on sizzix and joann’s website and bought a lot of suppliers. Realizing now though, I think I was not able to fully take advantage of my chance to do scrapbook shopping, I truly regret it, I could have shopped more stuff, had I known before of twopeasinabox shop. Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! Fast forward to me going back here in the Philippines, I have just accumulated more scrapbooking stuff that I cannot use, due to lack of storage space, thus prompting me again to sadly bring all my new goodies to Batangas. It even made me think of selling everything, out of desperation. Some time January, hubby bought a new cabinet for kurt’s things and a folding table for me. He bought the table as a Christmas gift to me, so happy that I’ll finally have a scrapping table that I can set up in our room. Then since we have a new cabinet, I transferred all of kurt’s things there then the 2 of 4 drawers in kurt’s old drawer became my scrapbook supplies storage. From January to now, June 18, 2007, I had the following scrapping accomplishments: partially completed kurt’s first birthday 30-pager 8x8 album (pending: journaling), 1 12x12 page and one 12x12 page in progress (pending: journaling). I am actually somehow fulfilled with my accomplishments so far. Now, my current predicament? I think I need to setup my printer (got it free with my laptop then) so I can finally complete my old pages. Even kurt’s milestones pages are not all complete as some pages lack journaling. I already know what to put but I have to print it as I am not totally happy with my handwriting. After setting up the printer, I think everything is good to go. Now, I just need to learn a few more confidence and be active in the scrapbook EBs.

Whew! A very long introduction indeed.