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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A Welcome Home Banner for My Beautiful Niece

DIY Welcome Home Banner

My niece, Chachi, was diagnosed with Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) or "a hole in the heart" when she was still a baby. You may know that in some cases, those with small VSDs, the holes close on their own but unfortunately my niece needed an open-heart surgery, which she had just recently. During the ten days that she was in the hospital, everyone in the family kept on visiting and bringing her gifts and those abroad did Facetime to keep her happy as she was so bored and wanted to go home so bad. We're all thankful and happy that the surgery went well and that she's finally home and recovering fast. My mother who was responsible for almost all of the hospital expenses with the help of my stepdad and their relatives thought that it would also be nice to have a "Welcome Home" party for Chachi so we did have one. A little effort to make the banner myself is one way to show my niece how much I love her.

This banner is great for birthdays, baby showers, or any kind of party or occasion. To make one like this, you need:

Colored or printed paper (2 sets of different colors, I used letter sized ones.)

Scissors or cutter

Ruler

White glue or glue stick

Masking tape

Paper twine (you can also use a ribbon or any kind of rope)

With your 2 different printed or colored sets of paper, choose which one you would use for the letters and which one for the background. I chose the pink one for my letters and printed out two letters on each page. Do the same on the paper you chose for your letters.

Cut out the letters using your scissors or craft knife. The height of my cut out letters is 3 and 1/4 inches.

Based on the size of your letters, cut out the flags where you will be adhering them. I chose between the swallowtail and the triangle flag for the letter's background and went with the former.

Since I printed out two letters on one page, one letter fits on one half of the paper, so I cut the sheets of paper in half for the flags.

To make the swallowtail flag, find the center of the bottom side and measure how deep you want the v-shape to be and mark it. I decided on 2 inches.

Using a ruler, draw a line from that 2-inch mark to each of the corners at the bottom to form the v-shape and cut along the lines. If you are using a cutter or a craft knife you can just directly cut from the mark to the corners with the help of the ruler without drawing a line. 

You can now use the first flag you made as a template for the other flags.

Adhere the letters on the flags using white glue or gluestick.

String the flags by folding or wrapping a small part around the paper twine or rope and tape it to secure. Another way is to punch holes on the top part of the flags and string the rope through them. Make sure to leave a few inches of rope before the first flag and after the last one, just enough space where you can tape the banner to the wall. After making sure that all the letters are in order, you're done.

That's our Chachi looking well and happy. I'm so glad that she loved the banner, though I think she enjoyed the heart balloons more, haha.

There are lots of styles and materials you can use to make your own banner - scrapbook paper, glitters, colorful printables, ribbons, tassels, and a lot more. Whatever you choose, remember to have fun while making your little project.

Thank you for stopping by. Till next time!

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Easy DIY Magazine or File Holder

These magazine or file holders are very easy to make and are made from simple materials. The bigger one is made from illustration board and the two small ones are made from a cereal box. This project is very useful not just for organizing magazines but also for the kids' coloring books, activity books or other files.  I'm using mine for organizing paper supplies.

I'll show you how I made the magazine holder from a cereal box first. My brand of cereal doesn't have the really big boxes like the others that could fit a magazine, so it's great if your cereal boxes are big enough for magazines, this project will be easy-peasy for you. The box I have is just 7.5" x 2" x 11" and it couldn't hold my scrapbook paper stash so it's just for my notebooks, photo paper, and other smaller stuff. 

The picture above shows some options on how to cut your cereal box to make this project. Just remove the top flaps of your box, mark and line on where you should cut, and cut it using a craft knife or scissors. Then, have fun decorating, you can use wrapping paper, stickers, or washi tape.

As I've mentioned earlier, my box is a bit small and it's just for small stuff like notebooks, so this is what I did. I cut my box in half as shown in this picture so I was able to make two small holders.

First, I closed the top flaps back and secured them with glue, so that would be the bottom of one of the holders. 

I did a little measuring then mark and line the box on where to cut and used my craft knife to cut the box in half. 

Then, there are two pieces ready to be covered. I just used scrapbook paper and glue to wrap them.

And, done. My notebook and small paper supplies are now neatly organized which is better than when they're piled up on top of each other.

Now, on to my copy paper, card stock, art paper, and scrapbook paper pile. Since I don't have a cereal box big enough to hold them, I just used illustration board to make the holder instead.

I have this 20" x 30" illustration board I bought for only Php 37 (less than $1) that I was planning to use for another wall art, but I decided to use it on this project instead, I'm still waiting for some supplies to make that wall art, anyway.

I cut the board based on the paper sizes I have which are mostly A4, so before the diagonal cut out design, the sides are 9" x 12" and the width of the box is 4".

I just used a regular white glue to stick the parts together and let it dry for quite a while maybe more than an hour or two since I used a generous amount of glue to make sure that every part is secure. 

When the glue's dry and the box looks sturdy to be worked on, I decoupaged it with small pieces of scrapbook paper using Mod Podge. I have lots of these 1"x1" pieces of paper because before throwing away small cut outs from a finished project or a scrap piece of paper, I always check if there's still a big enough  piece I can save. I only throw away tiny pieces and strips that couldn't make out a one inch square. 

After adhering the squares on the box and finishing up with a coat of Mod Podge on top, my file holder is ready. I also tried putting some magazines and they fit well on this size of box.

Now, everything form the biggest size of paper to the smallest one in my craft area seems to be in order. As of this writing, I'm actually still in the process of making organizers and boxes to keep everything neat and keep attractive and colorful things from my daughter's sight. Every time she comes here in my craft area, she likes getting her hands on anything she thinks she can play with, that's why I always make sure that anything breakable and sharp is far from her reach, but sometimes I let her play with balls of yarn and choose the color she likes.

Till next time. Thanks for visiting. 

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