Amazing Race - Final Round

I'm one of the finalists of Mystical Scrapbook Amazing Race Competition! Woohoo!!! Six of us were left, including another Pinay and a friend, Donna. I feel so lucky already being one of the last 6 participants. I thought I'd be voted out from the very first round, especially that I'm quite new to the site and I barely knew anyone except for some familiar faces like Cookie, Donna and Issa. I'm thankful for all those who voted for me for the last 5 rounds ... I don't even know who they are : )

Anyway, here are the criteria for the final round:

- A page including an Australia traditional celebration - be it xmas, birthday, easter, new years, anything you might celebrate in your house. - Multiple photos (eg. anything more than ONE pic) - You can choose the main colour of your layout from the following:
RED, BLUE, GREEN or YELLOW, being the colours most used when we talk about traditional Aussie colours. You can use other colours, but I want one of these colours to stand out

It has been awhile since I last made a spread (a two pager). I think I could do more spreads in the future provided I always have 2 papers of the same kind/color hehehe.

materials used: Chatterbox Eclectique (red and yellow) pps, Junkitz, Scenic Route; Prima epoxy stickers, Chatterbox letter stickers and chipboard stickers, Scenic Route sticker (smiley), Staz on ink, Uniball Signo and Zig pen
Lightning McQueen photo downloaded from Disney site
Photography by Owee Salva

Ok, so today the winners were announced ... I didn't win. But hey I'm happy!!! Just take a look at all of the 6 layouts I made from the previous rounds. That's enough reason to celebrate!

The final entries could be seen here.

Happy Easter Monday! Easter stories and photos to follow soon : D

-Pia

Amazing Race - Week 5

I'm still in? Thank goodness, yes! For last week's round, our destination was the Philippines! Boy, was I super excited I'm home! Here's what we were asked to do by the challenge master, Cookie:

1. Use atleast 3 manufacturing brands of papers
2. Have some journaling
3. Use 3 photos in any size

My family has been out almost the whole week - photo shoots and Ethan's swimming class. Due to lack of time, here's what I made at 3 in the morning on the day of the submission hehehe.

title: Circus Sand
matls used: Sassafras Lass, BasicGrey, My Mind's Eye, American Crafts pps
chipboard: Chatterbox, American Crafts, Ki Memories
vinyl alpha stickers: American Crafts
epoxy border sticker: Prima
border sticker: Ki Memories
photo corner sticker: Chatterbox
pen: Uniball Signo
ink: Versamark
buttons
Photography by Jeff Lopez

This must be my favorite round. I really had fun with the papers I have used and I got to use BasicGrey Color Me Silly again! You still remember that old BG line? It's an all time favorite of mine - love the patterns and the mixture of bold colors! I also love the elephant chipboard I got from American Crafts - I've been wanting to add that embellishment for awhile now and the circus must be the right layout for it! It was a great challenge.

We're on the last round this week, the final list of participants would be announced tomorrow. In or out, I'm pretty much okay either way : )

The rest of the entries could be viewed here.

-Pia

Amazing Race - Week 4

I'm still on the 4th week of the competition! Our destination this time: China. China, being the biggest country in Asia, we were asked to make a layout using a big photo. Also, we need to use numbers on our pages (it can be in the title, a design element, an embellishment or part of the papers' design) and blings.

This isn't my initial layout actually but I never had the chance to print the photos I was planning to use for this round. I'm glad I was able to pull this through anyway.

title: My Pot of Gold
matls used: patterned pps, border stickers and alpha chipboard: Ki Memories, Love Elsie, BamPop; word stickers: Scenic Route; letter stickers: BasicGrey; buttons; brads: Queen and Co.; numbers (vinyl, sticker and chipboard): American Crafts and Chatterbox; rub on numbers: unknown; Bazill cs; blings, rub on (frog): Fancy Pants; ribbons: Daisy Bucket and unknown; plastic flower: AC; pen: Zig
Photography by Jeff Lopez

Check out the gallery for the previous week's challenge here.

I checked the announcement yesterday and luckily, I found that I'm still part of the competition. There are only 12 of us left from the original 28 participants. This week (round 5) is the second to the last round and if I'll still be part of the contest on the 6th round then I will consider it as a bonus! : )

-Pia

Amazing Race - Week 3

I'm still part of Mystical Scrapbooks' Amazing Race 2009 Contest. Our destination was Egypt! Here's what we were asked to make:

* To use a warm weather themed photo (think the beach, pool or summer)
* The color red (to represent the Red Sea which borders Egypt)

Here's what I came up with after less than an hour hehehe ...

I was cramming to make this one. I was cutting papers but literally don't know what to do with them. I had cut several papers, only to put those aside coz I didn't like it hehehe. I was already feeling tired and was thinking to quit. It wasn't the only thing I was thinking about anyway (I was preparing for Jeff's surprise birthday party at home). I was feeling guilty that instead of doing something else, I was sitting and trying to finish a layout. So I decided I'll make a 'quickie' and I'll just accept the fact that this might be my last round ... anyway, I did my best in the past 2 rounds and I was happy with my layouts (which is what's more important, right? )

I emailed my layout an hour before the deadline hehehe ...

I'll be waiting for the eliminations tomorrow. I'll wait and see ... : )

-Pia

layout title: Feel the Heat matls used: My Mind's Eye, Prima, Scenic Route and Cosmo Cricket pps, American Crafts Thickers, Brillaince ink, Zig pen, Faber Castell watercolor pencil

Click here to see the other beautiful entries.

Amazing Race - Week 2

I made it to the next round of Mystical Scrapbooks' Amazing Race 2009. Our destination was Greenland. Funny that most of us thought, we'll be using the color green for this challenge. But here's what we were asked to do:

* To use the colors brown and white only (a tiny amount of black will be allowed for journaling only).
* Glitter or bling to represent the snow / ice.

Here's what I've created.

Title: Monkey Love
materials used:

1. white cardstock as base: unknown
2. patterned papers: Daisy Bucket Merry Wishes-Very Merry, Deck the Halls, In the Meadow-McKenna, Celeste, Sweet Marabella-Francesca, Loves Me, Loves Me Not-Pieces of my Heart and Scenic Route (kraft paper)
3. white blings: Prima
rub ons (words) and paper ribbon (polka dot brown): Daisy Bucket
4. felt flowers: Fancy Pants, Daisy Bucket, American Crafts
5. chipboard: Maya Road and American Crafts
6. ink: Colorbox
7. alpha stickers: Making Memories
8. brad: WRMK
9. brown pen: Sakura and Crayola
10. others: buttons

Journaling:
Ethan fondly calls him "Monkey". Ethan loves "Monkey" a lot! "Monkey" was a gift last Xmas. Ethan brings "Monkey" everywhere he goes. Ethan plays with "Monkey" and sleeps with him too.

Photography by Pia Lopez

At first, I thought the challenge here was the use of brown and white colors "only" in a layout. I love the color brown; I oftentimes use brown cardstock as base for my layouts but I have never tried brown with white. The process of gathering all brown and white papers and embellies was the fun part - I had to dig into my stash - all of it literally! It was a real mess after I made this layout. So, it wasn't that difficult pala ... brown and white goes well together. I feel so lucky having my Daisy Bucket papers. DBD has a number of brown (in different shades huh!) papers and even papers that both has brown and white on it!!!

The difficult part for me here was where to place the blings! I felt that the blings are in a way, quite off for the theme of this layout. I don't have stickles or any glitter too (and I wouldn't know where to place it anyway!). So after a few tries, I was able to put it somewhere ... there ... you'll find it hehehe.

I love this challenge! I remember when I made the Scrappin' Moms Idol Color Challenge (Monotone layouts-don't kill me please) before, I almost had the same requirements. I thought that in order to pull this challenge, the trick is to use photos with colors that are contrasting or complimentary.This is just my opinion though; this is however open to interpretations : ) When I was planning for my layout (Monkey Love), I was thinking of a color that would go nicely with brown. I thought that yellow compliments brown! Those 2 colors just pop!

Next challenge will be up soon ... that is, if I'm still in : )

Check out the rest of the entries here.

-Pia

Amazing Race - Week 1

I joined the Amazing Race 2009 Competition at Mystical Scrapbooks. The last time I joined something like this was almost 2 years ago. I never even get to finish that one hehehe. Okay, so now here I go again, thinking perhaps I can make it through the 6 weeks of competition ... if I won't be voted out that is hehehe.

Truth is, I really want my scrapping mojo back ... it literally went away to a place I don't know hahaha! I wanted to squeeze in a layout atleast a week and make this month productive. Btw, did I mention, Ethan's summer vacation officially started last Saturday? Hurray for that hehehe. I need a separate post for Ethan's Culminating Activity in their school though.

Anyway, back to the competition. Our first destination is the United States of America. We landed in New York City and had a party in Manhattan just like the girls from Sex & The City! We were asked to make a layout with theme of our girl friends. We should be having fun on the photos (and on the layout, of course!) and we should use my "favorite color "... that is pink! Pink? Ako? Waah!!!

Well, napasubo ako with that pink ... Here's my take on the challenge.

Nakita nyo yung pink? Dami no? hahaha.

Thanks to my idol, Au Lim for the photos!

Materials used:
patterned papers: BasicGrey Scarlet Letter, Rouge de Garance, Ki Memories Pop Culture, Scenic Route
chipboard: Chatterbox, Ki Memories
others: pen, buttons, brads

journaling:
I'm not the type of person who loves to wear costumes but when we had our "Christmas" Madscrappers' Party, it was time to let loose!

Where else could I be this silly? With the company of my friends, of course!

I know that even if we had to go the extra mile to look our best that day, it was all worth it! We've had fun and I wouldn't trade anything for that!

I'd like to invite you to the gallery and check out the other beautiful entries, including layouts from my friends, Donna and Issa - they're also part of this contest.

It really feels liberating to be able to scrap again. I really enjoyed making this layout because I get to use my old papers from BG and Rouge de Garance that has been with me for almost 2 years already hehehe. And of course, I get to use bright colors again!

I'm checking my stuff and I'm so happy that I have few papers already! Yipee!!!!!!!! I haven't shopped for the past months and I don't even have the latest papers and embellishments - this is actually a feat!

-Pia