I received an E-Mail from Teacher Julie about a new meme, and even though I am not really the person who shops for Christmas - we were so poor before that we didn't really get used to giving gifts or receiving them, I still would like to try doing the meme.

It's a free-for-all theme for this week, and I chose to share this one:




The e-mail was sent today, and today is also the first day, so I didn't have that much time to go to the mall and scout for fab finds. I already posted these pictures over my other blog for Photo Hunt (family), but since I received the invitation today, I wasn't able to give myself enough time to check the mall for a fab find. Like what I've said, I am not really the type who shops for Christmas, so I hope my entry for this week would pass the standard. =)

These are our Christmas Tree ornaments last year. My sister wanted to do a motif for our Christmas decors last year and she chose rust, but the Christmas balls were too expensive, and we ended up with very few balls to decorate the tree. Our family just loves posing for pictures, so I decided to be a little personal. I had pictures reprinted and in one sitting, was able to do these ornaments. All the pictures were taken on 2007, and it was so ironic to be having pictures of the alive dad and have pictures of us at the cemetery visiting his grave (he died March last year).

Interested in making this project? It's actually very simple. Cut a strip of the scrapbook paper (I used a guide in my ruler with this) and paste it on the edge of the cardboard. A standard scrapbook paper is 12X12 inches, by the way. Next, paste a picture along the strip of patterned paper then paste strips of papers on the side of the picture until you've created a faux mat. Just continue doing the process until all the pictures are pasted. Cut each grid and set aside. Using the remaining patterned papers, cut out designs from the paper and after which cut the ribbon into desired length. Put a piece of the cut out design in front of the photo and put the ribbon behind (make sure you put both ends together to create a loop). Fasten the paper and ribbon with a brad. Hang it on your tree and show it off to friends. =)

Here is the breakdown of cost for this project:
>>> Pictures - around 96 pesos (8 pieces 5R pictures X 12 pesos each)
>>> Cardboard - free (I used the cardboard in one of my scrapbook paper kits)
>>> Mini Brads - around 60 pesos (30 pesos each pack for 30 pcs. mini brads)
>>> Scrapbook Paper - around 22 pesos (the scrapbook paper kit costed 130 pesos, but I only used 2 pieces of papers)
>>> Ribbon - free (a friend gave it to me)
>>> Acid Free Glue Stick - 45 pesos
>>> Total Cost: 223 pesos

Taking a look at the breakdown of cost, making this project certainly cost a little much if you're doing the project as is, but me being a scrapbooker (a lax one at that), most of these materials were already in my scrap bag, so the only thing I paid for were the processing of the pictures.

If you are planning to do this project, I suggest you edit your pictures first. Crop your pictures into 2.5 X 3.5 inches (size of a standard wallet size picture) and place four pictures in a mat of 5 X 7 inches (size of a 5R picture). That way, instead of paying for 3R or 4R pictures, you can just pay for 5R pictures and end up with more pictures. 8 pieces of pictures gave me 32 pictures; if I had it printed for 3R, I would have to pay around 176 pesos. Currently, Picture City is having a 10+3 photo promo, so you can save more with that. If you're not a scrapbooker and you find the scrapbook paper a bit expensive, you can use ordinary Christmas inspired gift wrapper. Just one thing you should know, please use acid-free adhesive because ordinary glue has water and it will damage your pictures in the long run.

This year, we decided not to put up the tree. Not that the Grinch has stolen our Christmas spirit, we're just plain lazy to take the box out, set it up, then put it back to the box once the holidays are over. Yes, we're weird.

*** Jenn ***