Paper Craft, Scrapbook Supplies - 168 Mall, Divisoria

We'll be attending a wedding next month where I'm one of the Matrons of Honor and my little girl, Jordana, is going to be the little bride. The motif is red and we can get our own dresses with the design we want. For Jordana, we'll have a little wedding gown made specially for her, but for me, I just decided to get one off-the-rack as I probably won't wear it again. So, my sister, who's also part of the entourage, and I visited 168 Mall in Divisoria where there are lots and lots of ready made bridal gowns, evening gowns, cocktail dresses, and the likes. The traffic was as bad as usual, our brother drove us there, but fortunately we both got what we went there for and I bought a few more things. 

It’s always a challenge to go to Divisoria so whenever I get the chance to visit, I make sure that the trip is always worth it. So, I walked around a bit after our main purpose there to buy a few stuff and I found this store selling arts and crafts, and school and office supplies. I got excited when I saw that they have stuff I can hoard for future use. I took this picture so I could easily find the store the next time I get to go to Divi.  I forgot to ask what the stall number is but it’s easy to find as this store is located at the corner and start of this hall, Pasilio 2M, just below these signs.

I got two packs of 12 x 12 inches patterned paper, each pack costs Php 150 (a little over $3) and contains 24 sheets of patterned paper and three die-cut sheets. There were lots of packs with different designs to choose from, they also have the 8.5 x 11 and 6 x 6 sizes.

I love the vintage vibe of these patterns, like they're part of a journal or a collection of someone from a horror film.

These are the die-cut sheets, most of the patterns have shiny embossed designs. One die-cut sheet like this is already worth Php 50 (over $1) from the book store I usually visit. This is a really good find for me.

Same goes for this other pack, beautiful sheets of die-cuts and patterned paper.

These stick-on crystals are good for scrapbooking and designing girly stuff. I got the big pack for only Php 50 (over $1) and the smaller one for Php 35 (about $0.75).

I'm so happy with this find. For only Php 180 (a little less than $4), I got this big round puncher. The size of the circle is about 3.5 cm. This is great for making round gift tags.

Each bundle of hot glue sticks costs Php 30 and contains 10 sticks, only Php 90 (a little less than $2) for all three. This 250ml bottle of white glue is only Php 45 (about $1).

This pack of 20 sheets of A4 size photo paper is also a good find, only Php 85 (less than $2) which is really low compared to mall prices. 

There were other stuff that I was also thinking of buying but I didn't think they'll be much use for my projects. There were color pens, colorful stickers, punchers with different patterns, stationery set, stencils, and a lot more. Sadly, they don't have distress inks which I really want to have. 

Verdict: Another fruitful Divisoria visit. I'll surely be back, hopefully within this year, before my supplies get depleted.  

If you have a paper craft hobby and you're here in Manila, give Divisoria a shot and it might be a nice surprise for you to find stuff with very low prices compared to your regular craft stores and I think this store at 168 Mall would be a good place to start.

Thank you for dropping by. Have a nice day!

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My Precious... Yarns from Baguio Hangar Market

My favorite cake, yarn cakes. Well, of course I specially love the edible ones but don't these yarn cakes just look so yummy? I know knitters and crocheters agree. If you are a yarn hoarder like me or just simply love yarns and you live here in the Philippines, you have probably heard about yarns from Baguio. Last year, I was finally able to visit the famous Baguio Hangar Market where mountains of yarns are sold. 

This is the stall where we bought my yarns. This is the second one we saw and a bit smaller than the first one located near the entrance of the market's second floor where the yarn sellers are. The first one sells acrylic yarns for Php 350 (a little over $7) per kilogram while it's only Php 300 (a little over $6) here in this stall.

I'm so sorry if I won't be able to give you the directions to the market because I honestly don't remember, lol. We just asked the friendly people there how to get to Baguio Central Market and once we're there, we again just asked around where the Hangar Market is.

They have different kinds of yarn, acrylic, cotton, and fancy yarns. It was almost nighttime when we got there so I didn't really look thoroughly at everything, I just went straight to choosing different colors of acrylic yarns. What I really wanted to buy were cotton yarns but they only have black and white available, they don't have hand-dyed ones, so I settled for the colorful acrylic ones. Maybe I'll learn how to dye cotton yarns in the future, it would be a useful skill for me. 

I bought a total of 3.5 kgs of yarn worth Php 1,050 (about $22). This would make lots of afghans, table runners, and more though I'm pretty sure I won't be able to use them all up in the near future. I just want to keep my yarn inventory full.

Each cake is more or less this big and I could make a bulky scarf from this and with a small leftover cake.

I made these Gryffindor and Slytherin scarves using just maybe a quarter or less than half of the cake of each color. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff scarves are still in progress.

Of course, yarns are not the only stuff you can shop for when in Baguio.

You can try this delicious strawberry taho...

... or this strawberry ice cream with lots of chunky strawberry bits. We got them when we were in the strawberry farm.

Also in the strawberry farm vicinity, we got these broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce...

... Sagada oranges and this green pinipig.

Inside that brown paper bag is 1 kilogram of ground Benguet coffee. The aroma in that coffee store in Baguio Central Market where we got this was so intoxicating. We caught it from afar and we were immediately drawn to the place to buy coffee.

And these are the pasalubong stuff. We bought them from the vendors who gave us directions to the yarn stores, we promised them that we'd come back and buy from them after we got my yarns.

These ones, we got from the Good Shepherd store in Mountain Maid Training Center. The 12 oz. Ube Jam we got from the central market was Php 220 and the ones sold from the Good Shepherd store are Php 200, just a small difference.

And what else did we get? Our matching sweaters! Jordana's sweater was only Php 120 (around $2.50) and mine was only Php 230 (a little less than $5).

So cute on her, hihi. 

It was only my second time in Baguio and we're definitely going back. Maybe next time I'll get those white cotton yarns and dye them myself. 

Thanks for visiting. Ta-ta for now!

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Mixed Craft Supplies Haul

Whenever you think of shopping online from shops in the US or anywhere abroad, or a loved one would send you a package, what are you excited about buying? Clothes, shoes, bags, makeups, perfumes, or gadgets perhaps? I also love those stuff of course, I would get at least a pair of shoes or two, perfumes, and bags, specially those that cost double here in Manila but along with those ladies' staples, I'm always excited and happy to receive my craft supplies. Most of these craft materials also cost double here as most are only available from individual online sellers and they probably just have their supplies shipped from abroad as well and they still have to add a little amount on top of the item's actual cost and the shipping, it's business, can't blame them, really. 

Anyway, I just want to share these few stuff I got recently for my crafting needs. 

I'm now dabbling with polymer clay so I got this Jacquard Pearl Ex Powdered Pigments set, it's used to add color and shimmer to clay, I also tried mixing it with acrylic paint and the result was great, the mixture shimmered. I also got these tools for clay molding, the stainless spatula set and the acrylic roller. This acrylic paint set can be used with my other craft projects but I got this for my air dry clay, I have plain white air dry clay that can be kneaded with acrylic paint to have color. I still haven't tried it but I'm hoping to get good results.

These are for paper crafts. The Martha Stewart Scoring Board and tool, this is really helpful when making envelopes, paper boxes, or bags, I'm gonna be busy with it this Holiday season. I've already used this Cricut portable trimmer and I loved it, so easy to use and big enough for 12" sized paper or cardboard. Another one from Cricut is this scraper and spatula set, for scraping unwanted stuff from any surface, I'd probably use it with my clay tools, too. I also got this corner rounder set of two, 1" and 1/2", this is for making gift tags and paper bags, so this will be well used this Christmas.

Most of my craft projects use Mod Podge glue and sealer and this is something that should always be present in my craft area, I still have the gloss finish but I also want to try this sparkle one, it's just like the gloss finish but with tiny glitters leaving a nice sparkly look. The Mod Podge Dimensional Magic is a new one for me, I really wanna try it as I've seen beautiful projects using this, it adds glassy finish and dimension to a surface, so cool for making jewelry and accessories, I don't know how to explain what it does exactly but you can check out this tutorial from Mod Podge Rocks to see its wonders.

One of the must-have tools that a crafter needs is a craft knife.  I already have the X-Acto precision knife and just wanted a spare one and a few refill blades but my mom got me this set, I love her, she's so thoughtful.

This lot is for jewelry making that I intend to work on again after the projects I have lined up. I got the ring display hand, the display bust for earrings and necklaces, the magnifier with lamp that can be used hand-held or hands-free, and these assorted pearls and gem stones that are so inviting but like I said I still have some projects to make, mostly for Christmas presents, jewelry making will have to wait.

These are all gifts from my mom, by the way, early Christmas gifts indeed. She got them from Hobby Lobby, Jo-Ann, and Walmart, the pearls and gem stones were from various online stores, the labels show Artbeads.com, Beadaholique.com, Beadalon.com, Jewelrysupply.com, and Firemountaingems.com and some, according to my mom are from trusted eBay sellers.

I still have a lot of supplies I haven't touched yet but I'll get to them real soon and to this new batch as well. It's just sometimes tricky to be in the zone with my crafts while overseeing my two-year old girl, she has a nanny and she can see me from my craft area but she always wants to be with me and join in the fun, haha. 

Till next time. Bye for now!

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