Summer Workshop Ongoing!

Hello everyone! Just updating everyone on what's going on with our little Arts and Crafts Workshop. We're on our sixth week! And so far, it's going great.

Here's my Watercolor Painting Workshop in the morning. We were doing a lesson on color schemes, this one, it's about a Triadic color combination with Primary Colors as applied to a simple still life.

This Pencil Drawing Workshop is in the afternoon (we move to the patio after lunch, because it's cooler there in the afternoon). Here, the kids are doing separate projects because they finish each of their drawings at their own pace. The youngest was doing lines because she started just today. The oldest was doing a pencil rendering of the clay jar on her right side. The two on the left were doing their simple bowl, trying to apply shades and shadows on their drawings. The one on the foreground was finishing up with her set of line drawings of objects based on basic forms like cylinder, sphere, cone, and cuboid.

Last Saturday, we had someone who signed up for a Paper Cutting Workshop. Since it's her first time to do anything related to this craft, we chose to make a simple monogram for her which she also designed. We mounted her finish product after we cleaned up her project.

Next up on our schedule!

April 30 (Saturday) - Mini-Scrapbooking Class
May 7 (Saturday) - Mini-Scrapbooking Class
May 14 (Saturday) - Perspective Drawing Class
May 21 (Saturday) - Exhibit!

After 84 Years...

Hello everyone! Cookies for those who'd be able to guess the reference for the title. If you're in the Philippines, I'll send you something.

Anyway, the weekend Arts & Crafts Workshop is going to push through. I'm still trying to figure some things out. It's going to probably start sometime in August.

In the meantime, after almost two years, I'm finally able to start with these scrapbooks of our trip to Algiers, Algeria and Paris, France in October 2013. Like everyone else, I'd love to do it in 12" x 12" format, but alas! Like always, I was intimidated and overwhelmed even before I start. I said to myself, with not a small amount of bleeping words to mention here for general audience, I'd just make a couple of 8" x 8" bound by rings. I'd do the books myself.

And here they are. They're not finished yet, but I'm currently working on them. (No. They're not just on my table to remind me to work on them. I'm actually, really working on them. Ha!)

I wrote the words by hand; cut some titles by hand; and did some high school-level kind of letter cutting. I have a Cricut but somehow, I'm not happy with the letters that it gives me. They felt so impersonal. I used them for journaling cards, though. The pages are as simple as can be. I don't want to further overwhelm myself and give up after working on one page, so I just did this.



The one on top is our Algiers trip for the Festival International de la Bande Dessinee d'Alger. My husband was a guest and he gave a talk about Philippine Komiks.



I handcut the Algeria word. I like that it's in my handwriting.

Same goes for Algiers here.

These are how most of the pages are: pictures, words and pieces of paper as embellishments... if you can even call them that.

And of course, pocket! There needs to be a pocket for the souvenirs we collected.

I'm not done with the Algiers book, but the photos for the Paris book are all in there, as well as the souvenirs in its own pocket. I should be done with these babies at the end of June, because there are lots of projects to do yet. One frustrating thing about doing crafts and being motivated is, you really can't rush things so you can move on to the next project. You have to finish it!

See you all around for the Paris book!

Happy 2012!

Hello everyone! It has been quite awhile since I last posted a blog entry. I am still quite alive, thank you very much. :)

2011 was a very eventful year for me, for us, personally. So much has happened at the homefront that left me so little time, and so little interest, to focus on my paper crafting and scrapbooking. Aside from personal struggles which I'm very thankful that we're able to get through, August to December was so very busy. I'm still teaching Art to little children in Los Baños. There was the National Architecture Week to plan. Our students' Christmas production needed as much attention as usual (but we had to tighten our belts on stage design this year; economic situation all around calls for it). And since Gerry's schedule was so full last year, that added to my schedule as well. No question about it, I support my husband all the way. Family comes first.

Last time, I had the bright idea of coming up with New Year's Resolutions, not going to do it again. Except, EXCEPT, more travels this year. If I won't be able to go to foreign countries, then I'd be glad to just do it here in the Philippines. Besides, It's More Fun in the Philippines, right? haha. Life is short and I will enjoy it immensely with my husband.

We are planning to move to his parents' home soon. We agreed that it is time for them to have company 24/7. That will take so much time and energy on its own. Right now, I am still in the process of packing our things and some of our stuff are already there. So with everything that is going on and at this rate, I will probably be able to start with my paper crafting and scrapbooking by March. Besides, I have to reorganize this business and finally get really serious about it.

So, one step at a time. Also, I hope to be able to update this blog often even if I have no personal projects to show yet. I have a link to my Twitter account on the sidebar if you want to read about my raves and rants about my favorite tv shows. By the way, you really ought to give Doctor Who and Downton Abbey a chance. :)

See you and have an awesome 2012 everyone!

Curriculum and Things

I was finally able to speak with the Art teachers from the main campus. I think I'm doing good so far with the lessons I'm giving but I still have a lot to teach the kids. The two I spoke to had been very nice and accommodating. I should have joined them during their orientation but at the time, I haven't signed my contract yet that I was not really sure where I stand in the whole scheme of things at school.

I'm currently comparing my notes to the checklist they gave me. I'm confident that we'll be able to reach those goals but right now, I'm a bit overwhelmed. I have to admit though that the checklist is easier to understand than that Rubicon which just swam like crazy before my eyes when I tried to read it.

There are other things I have to do still. Remember the New Year's resolution last year? Well, it remained in theory. The 2010 scrapbook? I did until May. I'm still doing the rest of the year but it's not as fast as I would have liked. I thought I'd just do a page a month but it turned out that our year was the busiest so far. Man! I even have 6 pages in some months because of all the activities and events that we went to.

The wedding album? I went as far as preparing the base sheets. The scrapbook albums I do for other people are quite embellishment-friendly. But personally, I prefer a minimalist approach and I still wasn't able to finish things that need finishing. Ha! Sometimes, when I should be doing this, I find myself reading books or online. I don't even have a Facebook account to lose myself into! I think it's an escape from responsibility thing.

But don't worry, my dear clients, the things I do for you, I can do easily and finish on time. But the things I do for me, I end up being saddled for months. Ha! That should change.

Finally, My Own Scrapbook

I know! Isn't it pathetic? Remember my New Year's resolution about me creating a 2010 scrapbook? Well, I'm finally finished with my March double-page spread and starting with April pages. I also did the album on this one I think I'll be able to post this in January of next year.

I found that if I'm creating for myself, I tend to make it very simple. There are usually lots of frilly embellishments when I do scrapbook for others but here, it's not the case. But as always, there are a lot of photos in a page. I can't do just one photo. I tried, but I really can't.

Then there are the birthday photos of my niece, Kyla. I'll do a mini-album for those after the April pages.

And oh! Gerry is in a short film for Plan International under the direction of Lem Garcellano. I'll probably do a mini-album for his pictures there... a no-frills album as usual.

I Just Got Back from School

I will share with you what my students were working on for the last 11 weeks. It sounds very grand, but it's actually just 11 hours total because we're only working for an hour every week. It's an After School Activity at Brent-IRRI in Los Baños, Laguna, and it's on Scrapbooking and Photography. Sound a bit much? Yeah, I think so too. Maybe next year I'm going to separate those classes.

Anyway, I'm not really a photographer but I know some basic things I could teach the kids like utilizing natural light, effect of the combination of light, shade and shadow in photography, golden hour (but my class was in mid-afternoon so it was just words), rule of thirds, get close to the subject, holding the camera straight, etc. So these are just some samples of what they did:

By Iman Ismail, Fourth Grade

By Isabelle Douthewaite, First Grade

By Xyla Fitzwell, Second Grade

By Anna Heuer, Kindergarten

By Mami Hosen, Third Grade

Aren't they neat? They just used digital point and shoot cameras for this, but for their grade levels, I thought they did really, really well.

The other part of our ASA is Scrapbooking. Below is a stack of scrapbooks they did. They scrapped the photos they took. I prepared the materials for covers and cut the interior pages. They put together the covers and we punched the sides for the binding rings. We didn't really use any fancy brand-named materials. We just want them to experience to make their first ever album.

Instead of patterned paper, we used giftwrapping paper. We used ordinary acid-free glue stick for all the papers, and a different kind of glue for embellishments. I bought a lot of buttons, ribbons, flowers, feathers, transfer letters and sequins in various shapes. There were a lot of leftovers so I divided them to six, bagged them and gave the rest to them. They were sooooooo excited about that. Next year, I think I'm going to let them use 'real' scrapbooking papers.

So, here are the scrapbooks they did.



There will be an exhibit of their works on Friday, April 30. I sure will be there to support them while they present their work. I'm telling you, these are the sweetest, most innocent kids I ever met. And they did some really, really wonderful job.

Mini-Albums for January

Hello! Here are my trio of mini-album projects that kicked off my New Year. I have a couple of origami albums as gifts. The green one has the usual three overlapping square papers but the pink one has additional two so it's rather long to accommodate more photos. (I had to blur the photo on this one. It's my friend's underage daughter so...)

The one on the bottom is an 8"x8" modified coptic bound blank scrapbook album. I inserted beads in between signatures to give the pages more room for pictures and embellishments in terms of thickness.

The kite string still works wonders and it actually has a sort of paper-y texture. It's like a really thin paper twine to the touch. I quite like it.

New Year Resolution

I never made any list of resolutions at any time ever. Well, except if it's a school requirement back then and we all know some of them were done because they're requirements and unreal. I thought it's always a useless thing, well, as it applies to me. I always just went on about my life, carrying on, doing things that need to be doing and that's it.

Well, now, I'm making one. Just one. I thought I'd make one that is tangible and most likely to be accomplished. A bit lofty, actually, but I'm challenging myself. Like I said before, I'm not really an avid scrapbooker. I make them for others. It's what I do. This year, I'm going to change that because I'm making it my goal to finish three albums I kept putting off since seven years ago. First is our wedding album. I know! I know! That's why I'm putting this here. It's especially difficult to finish something personal than to finish something for somebody else with pay, you know? Second, is that great Bohol trip of 2004. I actually started that already. And third, I hope to complete a one-page a month album for 2010. I'm thinking, considering, to document my progress. Hmmm. I'm still on the fence on that one.

Well, it's because I promised Gerry this many years ago and he's snorting whenever I mention it now. I don't think he believes I'll do it anymore. This year, I'm really going to make time for these. :)

There's one other thing I'd like to do but this will depend on my resources that's why I'm not putting it up there. I plan to start re-printing old Florese family photos from our collection of negatives. I'd really love to complete those again. Thank God, my late father's a packrat. He kept all those negatives.

Next year, I will definitely revisit this post and see if it's worth doing at all. Resolutions, I mean. Wish me luck!!!

Finally saw the last episode of Doctor Who with David Tennant. David, you'll definitely be missed.

Those -Ber Months...

These are the recent projects I did:

A birthday album for my dear cousin. It was her 7th birthday last January 25. I took many of the photos here, and as you can see on the second photo, I didn't have any difficulty with that one. They posed themselves!



These are minibooks and cards for classmates who helped and contributed their time and resources to make our reunion held on August 3, 2008 a success:



This is for a client she gave as a gift:


These are for my friend, Ela, who asked me to make these huge boxes for organizing stuff on top of her closet. There's a smaller box for what-nots on her table, 2 pencil holders and a notepad. The red pencil holder is to match another notepad I did for her earlier.

Recent Projects

September 2007

This is my first set of Artist Trading Cards (ATC) that I swapped with fellow crafter and friend, Chris Palmer. She's into vintage designs and so, for my first batch of ATCs, I thought it would be nice to be a sort of tribute to her since she's the one who really got me to try this. She also encouraged me to try collage and even sent me a bag of ephemera to help me on my first attempt! Some of the materials I used here came from her. One exception though, one of these ATCs is a paper cut-out of a woodcarving pattern from a Bahay na Bato.

Calendar and boxes for one of the bulletin boards in a pre-school. I did three bulletin boards but I wasn't able to take photos of the other two. They all look like huge scrapbook pages. Also, I held a crafts class for 1st to 3rd graders on Jacob's Ladder. At first I thought I'd take a photo or two of the class but as it is, they are not my kids, nor they are my students, and I would need the permission of their parents to post those photos. So I decided against it.

August 2007

This is an 8" x 8" post bound album I made as gift for my cousin, Carla, for her 18th birthday. The front cover is from Basic Grey Infuse collection and the rest were Canson Mi-Tientes big cut paper. Carla isn't a girly girl and would have frowned if I did pinks and greens and yellows on this album.

June 2006

This is the guest book I did for our godchildren for their wedding.