Signing Time

Posted on | August 16, 2010 | 10 Comments

When I learn something or if I find something useful I feel the need to share and/or show somebody how to do it. When I am interested in something I research it to death. Hubby said it’s to the point of being overly overwhelming but he lets me be as long as he doesn’t have to hear every single detail or read a 100 page summary.

After I was pregnant with M I got a whiff of baby signing. I researched and researched, learn a few signs along the way, and concluded that it’s one of the best thing after diapers. Right now we’re focusing on signing with Jovie. Like most babies her age Jovie can’t speak (M was an exception, she babbled well and woke up talking one day at about 14.5-months). Jovie makes noises which some I can understand but for the most part she sounds like a little cave girl. The good news is that Jovie’s been really good about learning how to sign the last few days. Even though she got milk and change down the end of January it just recently clicked that all the different hand movements we’ve been doing mean something.

So here’s the educator in me sharing with you: If you’re expecting or have a little one I highly recommend teaching your baby how to sign. Research and personal experience have shown that signing does not slow speech development. M talked at 14-mo but she still signed until she was 18-mo because a few of her words I had a hard time understanding. M actually still signed a few words, “please” included, until she was three. She was a thumb sucker and she’d have her thumb in her mouth and politely ask for things with her other hand (cute at first but hubby and I decided that the thumb needed to be out of the mouth when asking for something). Jovie is much much happier now that she knows a few more words. When she wakes up she’ll ask for milk, then a change of diaper and then cereal. A few weeks ago she insisted on ice cream for breakfast. She’ll ask to go outside or to play. It’s wonderful!!

You don’t have to know American Sign Language. I didn’t. I just watched the videos, Signing Time or My Baby Can Talk, (this site has a wonderful video dictionary of different words) with M and we learned together. Plus it’s not like I was going to sign in full sentences. It was a word or two here and another one there. I did take a signing class just for fun last summer. It taught me a lot about ASL and and Signing Exact English (SEE) but that didn’t teach me a lot of new things in terms of baby signing. Do do do try this! So far Jovie knows: Milk, change, more, eat, cereal, outside, play, hot, cold (with “brrr” as the sound effect), sleep/night-night, ice cream, and potty. It’s a third less than what M knew but they’re better than nothing.

Here’s little Jovie showing off her teeth, cheesy smile and a few :

Page details:

Although the page might look complicated it actually wasn’t. It’s just the paper that’s busy. Then I added a bit here and there, mostly scraps, and came up with this piece. The left photo is of her saying “all-done“. The right is “more“. Both were not done correctly but that’s how Jovie signs.

This little corner was just layered with random bits of leftovers. They used to be a part of a Studio Calico kit (except for the flower and the doile) -- mostly Making Memories travel kit stuff. A little piece here a little there and voila.

I also want to show you this part. Just stickers here with the edges a bit curled or unglued. It wasn’t my idea. I guess cause the stickers are 2-3 years old the adhesive were non-existent. After I adhered the stickers started peeling off. I liked the peeled look and so I added more glue but just to half the side. This just gives the page a bit more 3D look.

That’s it! Oh, isn’t Jovie getting so big?!?! She’s looking more and more like her daddy… the prettier version.

Sweet Oreos

Posted on | July 30, 2010 | 5 Comments

HAPPY FRIDAY!!! Kind of weird, even though I don’t work now I still look forward to Fridays. I think it’s because I know we’ll all be home the next day and also that it’s just another day until market day!! Granted there’s market day everyday around us the big more fun ones are always on Saturdays.

I can’t wait until next week either. There are a lot of things to share, new projects using Clear and Simple Stamps and WPlus9 (AWESOME sets you’ll want to have!!) and some personal news – no we’re not having another one!!

Page details:

I got this color combo from the Color Combo Challenge on Ning, #153. At first I wanted to do a card but after digging around I found some perfect matching colors. I’ve been into simple, scattered, kind of fun layouts lately and this is just another one. I am into the ink spots too. They just add more visual to a simple page.The star of the page is Jovie and she loves the dirtiest cookies ever created. When it’s warm I’d remove her clothing before I give her and Oreo but on colder days it’d be laundry soon after. I don’t do laundry all in a day so there’s always something to start. So it’s no big deal. I love her smiles when she’s enjoying her cookie. I only give her one, a half at a time.

For the ink I used a Stampin’ Up! ink blowing tool. I’ve had it for a looooong time now but rarely use it. You stick an SU marker through it and push hard on the blower. The butterflies were recycled from a K&Co packaging, a Serendipity Embossed Sticker package, that the blue sticker came in. The yellow’s so rich and really, who’s going to look at my page from the side? Who cares what it looks like under the butterfly… if it’s got a bit of text here and there. The packaging is nice and firm, thick card stock, and makes the butterfly wings bend so nicely.

The rest of the stuff I used are American Craft alpha and vinyl stickers, Making Memory strip of paper from their travel line two years ago. Then a tiny bit of October Afternoon pattern paper with a flower from Prima and a rhinestone adhered to it. The small alpha’s from KaiserCraft. Oh, and some pom-poms. You can’t see it on the picture but the page was sprayed with some Marshmallow Tattered Angels mist. I think I finally figured out a good way to not get blotches on my work. I’ll have to try a color mist to confirm though.

Then there’s the little tear. This was actually an accident. I was scrapbooking on the floor and the foot of my chair got on top of this part and tore the paper. So I had to make it a bit more attractive and feel like it’s part of the page. Under the tear I adhered another piece of the October Afternoon paper.

I’ve been using a lot of old products lately. I have tons of new stuff but I really want to use up my old stash. I’ll probably never be able to catch up because I continue to shamelessly hoard but I also want to remind myself that just cause I’m using old stuff it doesn’t mean my page will look outdated in terms of design or what’s in right now in paper crafting. I can still use old material and combine it with new techniques or even old ones, and make it look like it’s a layout from 2010. If you’re new to this hobby or don’t have a lot of money to buy all sorts of things keep in mind that you can use just a little bit of this and that, they don’t have to be new either, and place them properly and you’ll have a page you’ll love to keep for a long time. I love this page I did, oldies but goodies for sure!!

Ok, have a great Friday!! We’ll see if I’ll show up tomorrow but for sure Sunday to share a super cute Clear and Simple card. Tata!!

Is Moving Ever Fun?

Posted on | January 5, 2010 | 9 Comments

Moving things around sucks, going through junk sucks, deciding what to keep and not to keep sucks, comforting M sucks (three melt downs so far), imagining a few months with VERY minimal furniture sucks, the thought of leaving my job sucks (I love my job and plus, not working equals to house wife duties aka cleaning). Hmmm… what else? You done listening to me whine? Sucks, sucks, sucks. But, all the negativities does go away when I think about the journey ahead… all the adventure that we’ll be having whether they’re good or bad as a family. That’s why my 2010 one little word is: journey.

Main Entry: ¹jour·ney
Pronunciation: \?j?r-n?\

1 : an act or instance of traveling from one place to another
2 chiefly dialect : a day’s travel
3 : something suggesting travel or passage from one place to another

All of us are very excited about this year and we’re one of those people who doesn’t mind changes — as long as they’re good (or at least they sounded good at that time). I’m hoping to be able to document most if not all of our adventures via my good old blog — or blogs — and scrapbook pages. I mean it’s not everyday we get to pack all our belongings and move to a different country. Now, don’t worry, I won’t be bombarding you folks with pics. I got Flickr/other photo galleries for that {::SMILE}.

Here’s my first page of 2010:

My baby girl.

I used bits and pieces for this page. A little bit of Making Memories paper that came from Studio Calico in 2008, some American Craft, Creative Imaginations and Amy Butler. Nothing fancy — something that’s M-ish.

K, that’s it. Have a great night!!

Happy Happy Monday

Posted on | November 23, 2009 | 7 Comments

Another week and I’m at home just relaxing with the girls while waiting for Mr. Brown. This lens that I’ve been waiting for months was finally shipped from Adorama (I buy from Adorama, B&H, and Calumet). So excited and I can’t wait to try it out!!! Hopefully I can use it decently and share some photos soon!

Last night while hubby and I watched loads of Law and Order (my FAVORITE show) I made a couple cards. M was creating me with but she collapsed on the couch after three cards. I had a few card making stuff with me last night, I was creating on the coffee table. I’m doing this to see what I use the most. We found out last week that it’ll take 35-55 days for our belongings to get to England and I still want to be able to do crafty stuff during that time. So far everything fits into a small craft bag. Pretty good! We are allowed 2 suitcases/pp at 70lbs each bag so my small bag of craft goodies will be on the plane with me with clothes and who knows what else. So from April – May you’ll most likely see the same stamp sets (mostly PTI cause they take less space to store) and a two handful of colors over and over again and whatever pattern paper that in my little paper carrier.

Alrighty, more later! The card was created with some scrap paper, Jenni Bowlin and Making Memories, with a chipboard tag from American Craft. The twill ribbon and pom-poms I got from WalMart. The stamp is PTI and the ink is SU.

Freebie: Butterfly Die-Cut Template

Posted on | October 14, 2009 | 12 Comments

Hi! I made a card AND used my Klik-n-Kut. I’ve been wanting to cut out a butterfly for awhile and last weekend at the expo I saw this acrylic butterfly that was part of a scrappy kit. Well, I didn’t want the kit, just not my style, but the lady wouldn’t sell me just the acrylic butterfly. She said there’s probably one somewhere in the expo I can buy individually <– NOT helpful, lady!

So last night after all the kids have gone to bed Savitri went to work and I got this:

Feel free to download the files (if you want the jpg format, just right click the butterfly image above and save as) and use them for your projects. I have them in a few different format so that other Klic-N-Kut users can use it and also those who has a Silhouette, Craft Robo, Wishblade ((by the way, the three are the same machines, just sold by different companies with different software/download and warranty packages)), and Cricut Expression. I could have converted it to other formats but hey, it was midnight, it’s free, and so if you don’t see your file type, download Inkscape ((it’s free version of Adobe Illustrator, kind of like what Gimp is to Photoshop)), open the SVG or DXF in it and export/save as (I can’t remember which) to your format. I think the only thing missing is the WPC format for Gazelle or Pazelle users.

SVG - Cricut users who can SCAL can use this format
DXF – Probably the most versatile, most die-cut machines that hooks up to a computer can open this format
KNK – Any users with the KnK software, like studio GE used by some Silhouette, Wishblade, and Craft Robo users)

For the acrylic butterfly I used the acrylic protector that came with my PaperTrey Ink stamps. It’s the part that the stamps stick on. It’s nice and thick but not too thick. I could still bend the butterfly to give it form. Then for the pattern paper (PTI stars) I shrunk the image using my KnK inline embedding/layering tool and took it down to .4. Look in your manual on how to do this, you can’t just grab a corner and shrink the image because the size will not be right. That’s it. ((The rest of the material are PTI ribbon and stamp, Making Memories paper, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, and border punch by Fiskars))!

Have fun and I can’t wait to see what you make with this!!