Some blog candies for lovely bloghoppers

Hello everyone! I've been MIA for a week, please forgive me. I've been busy with all the wedding preparations since May 22 is just a month away.  I'll update you with more of my (Did-It-Myself) DIY Wedding preps soon.  For now, I'm once again sharing yummy candies across the blog world!

For a start, here is Scrappalific's candy to celebrate her 4 years of blogging!

Hop on to her blog and to the other blog candy links on my right sidebar for some sweet yummy treats!

I'll be back very soon, I promise!

lovelove, ails

My 2nd digital scrapbook page

Hello lovelies!

I felt so inspired to create a digital page this afternoon when I saw The Color Room's Palette challenge. 

I love the colors in it! So I decided to make a page with my cousin's pictures that I took last Sunday.  This is my first take at "journaling" and at joining challenges.

Template - Cindy Schneider, PeppermintCreative.com, Scrap in a Snap Templates, Set #4
Ribbons - Shabby Princess Sweet Sprinkles
Solid papers used as round frames for the round photo - Shabby Princess Sweet Sprinkles
Buttons - Ronna Penner's Express Yourself
Little blue flowers - Kaisercraft
Number - Ruby Rynne Recipe Book Numbers

Everything else - Michelle Coleman's Bohemian Summer Papers and Embellishments (LittleDreamerDesigns.com)

I'm so proud of the result even if I used a free template.  Digital scrapbooking is as hard as  traditional but the difference is that this is not expensive since all the papers and embellishments I used are free. ^_^

A little wedding update: I am almost done with our invitations and I have also finished making our cord for the church ceremony.  I'll share lots of photos and processes later when I'm done.  Right now, i have butterflies so I'll enjoy the feeling first. ^_^

What's giving you butterflies these days? Tell me! ^_^

lovelove, ails

DIY Wedding : My Wedding Invitation (Part 2)

Thank you so much for your comments and suggestions my friends. ^_^  They helped me a lot with the following process I'm gonna share with you.

I printed our names on acetate with different fonts...

and then i put it over the cover of our invitation and let the fiance decide which is his choice.  And Ta Da!!!

It's been decided! ^_^

I'm gonna print our names on the red cardstock first before I assemble all the other papers and embellishments.  ^_^ I am so happy for finally finishing the design of our invitation!  And I owe this to all of you my lovelies!  Thank you so much! ^_^

love, ails

DIY Wedding : My Wedding Invitation

I need a little help from you my crafty friends.

Some of you are aware that the wedding we are preparing for May is a frugal wedding.  My fiance and I are finding the lowest but best offer first before finally buying or hiring whatever we will need for our wedding.  So for our wedding invitation, we decided to make our own.

We want it clean and simple.  So for the guests we decided to use a textured white cardstock.  We bought the brand Elit (8 1/2 x 11, white, Tulip, 220 gsm) at National Bookstore for Php30.50 per 10 sheets.  1 sheet of that can produce 2 invites.  I've designed 4 samples and had my family and some friends choose which design they like best.  Here are the choices:

a (flourish is NOT a stamped image)

b (flourish is NOT a stamped image)

c & d (flourish on both are hand stamped)

Which do you prefer?

Now, for the entourage, I decided to make a 2-fold card.  I printed the edited c &/or d invite on the left fold and printed the entourage on the right fold.  The back has the URL of our wedding blog.  I need your help on the front design.  My fiance told me to use only the materials that I already have.  So last Sunday, before going back to Manila I checked all the patterned papers and stuff that I have.  Our motif is Red with a very little touch of Black (very little because the oldies - mom & aunts - do not approve of black during weddings).  Below are all that I have...

3 pieces of each of these patterned 12 x 12 papers courtesy of Claire

(there are other red toned papers but I got only one piece of each so I didn't consider them as options)

and these embellishments. 

Oh! and good news is when I tried using my MS Doily punch once again, it worked! - for this thin but crisp red paper at least. Happyness!

With the materials above, here is what I've designed...

I cut the patterned paper 5" x 4" so I can produce 6 per sheet (multiply it by 3 sheets, i'll have 18).  18 is enough for my entourage (parents, godparents, secondary sponsors, and kids).  It is one invite short because I have to have a copy of this too!  So  I will just try to use what's left of the patterned paper to make 19.

What do you think of the invite?  I know it is unfinished that's why I need your help in finishing it.  Below are the different embellishments I used trying to complete this.  

Should I put our names (Hoseal & Aileen) on it? If yes, I'll have to print or write it down because I do not have a stamp for our names.

I haven't tried hard enough last night.  I'll try again tonight but for the meantime, I am asking for your suggestions and comments on how to improve this invitation.  I'm willing to buy additional materials.  My imagination is just too limited lately.

I'll greatly appreciate your comments and suggestions on this.  I'll update you tomorrow what I'll come up with tonight.

Thanks a bunch!

lovelove, ails

Holyweek 2010 and family

Ola!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!  I've spent my long weekend in bed due to cough and colds.  :(  But for one whole afternoon, I had a blast last Saturday attending our clan reunion.  The clan reunites every two years and our family was the host this year.  I prepared the invitation and program last March.  I was supposed to be the MC/host last Saturday but my cousin had to take my place because I could not talk nor stand for more than 5 minutes.  I was so weak but I endured 1 whole afternoon sitting on a monoblock, watching the clan play games, watching the presentation of each family, eating lunch and snacks except for ice cream and sago-gulaman, watching the cousins and the oldies dance, laughing with them, and taking photos with them. 

It feels so great reuniting with my relatives.  Our clan is getting bigger and I hope that this event will continue to strengthen our bond and camaraderie. 

Once I am done working out the upload of our video presentation, I'll share it here.  I am having problem with the audio being blocked by Youtube. So until I figure out how to remove whatever associations/codes the music we used has, the video will remain soundless online. I'll share photos of the happy reunion later too. I haven't collected them all yet.

Happy Easter everyone!

love, ails