Rediscovering My Roots

Call me old-fashioned but I envy those countries in Asia (or outside) who are still using their own writing system and how I wish my country, the Philippines, still does the same. I know I can describe it in other fancy words but to put it simply, it is cool, don't you think? :D Anyway, it's good to know that there are still Filipinos who are interested in rediscovering our roots by learning our country's ancient writing system which is the Baybayin.

Me, I was able to learn how to read and write Hangul, why not Baybayin? Like what they say... love your own... and the more I should, right? So, yeah, this is what I am doing now. Right now, I'm trying to memorize the characters and familiarizing myself with the strokes. Hopefully soon, I can write Baybayin beautifully, too, just like in calligraphy. Will be doing a lot of reading to.

For starters, here's my name in Baybayin...

 

It reads:

 Baybayin
ng
Buge
(Buge in Baybayin)

I plan to practice using song lyrics, maybe, quotes from famous Filipino personalities (not celebrities), and maybe a few lines from Filipino books. If there's anything you want me to write in Baybayin (Tagalog only, please), just drop me a line. :)

Practice Makes Perfect

Been practicing my calligraphy and I'm trying out different nibs, too. I asked my best friend to buy me some Hunt nibs from the US but she gifted them to me instead. Weeeee! I asked her to get me the Hunt 56, 99 and 101. Thanks much Jing!!!

I'm also trying out the Hunt 103 and the Zebra Comic G nibs. Each nibs has their own characteristics and I've somehow already made peace with them except for the Hunt 99 and 101. The 99 is too soft and either I run out of ink on my first stroke or you can't distinguish between my upstrokes and downstrokes. The 101 I haven't used much, yet, but I can tell it'll take time for me to get used to it, too, just like the 99.

I also have the Zebra Maru nib but I still need to look for a holder for it because it's smaller than the others. I got a couple of Speedball C style nibs, too. Such a hoarder am I, right? Haha!

Want to take a peek at a couple of my practice sheets? Don't laugh, okay? They're a mess!

I think this one's using the Hunt 101 nib and here's another one, a terrible one, using the Hunt 99:

If you'll notice, they're all lines from song lyrics. I'm planning to do a calligraphy a day project and will use mostly song lyrics. Just figuring when's the good day to start and for how long I'll be doing it. A 100 days maybe? I'll do #100daysofcalligraphy instead of #100daysofhappiness. What do you think?

ADAM Bomb + Garfield

Everyone, say hello to ADAM Bomb, the newest addition to my paper toys collection.

He's the one I was telling you about a couple of posts ago. Ain't he a cutie? If you're not familiar with him, he's one of the Garbage Pail Kids, a series of trading cards designed to parody the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls. I used to collect these cards when I was in high school or college (I'm really not sure when) and I'm thinking of collecting them again.ADAM is the only GPK paper toy I found in the net (there's also the trash can but it's only available to the 30 Years of Garbage pledgers) and I really hope they do make more.

Anyway, he's got a twin buddy in my collection (they're twins because I made them on the same day)... please say hi to Garfield...

 

Garfield is another favorite character of mine. We both hate Mondays, we both don't eat raisins, we both love lasagnas, we're both fond of dogs, and last but definitely not the least is we're both fat and lazy. Haha! Need I say more? :P

Now, here's a teaser to a set of paper toys I'm making now...

Sunny Came Home

Sunny Came Home by Shawn Colvin is one of my favorite songs and I was listening to it on repeat when I decided to practice calligraphy a little. Of course, my piece was inspired by the song... my favorite lines in the lyrics...

Please, excuse the imperfections... I'm still trying to learn calligraphy and still trying to find my own style. In case you can't read it clearly (Ha!), here's what it says:

Days go by I'm hypnotized

I'm walking on a wire

I close my eyes and fly out of

my mind into the fire

And look! I used my hand-carved foliage stamp, too. :P

On another note, Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is already on the 27th this month and I'm still contemplating if I'm going to sign up. I already have a pinhole camera and it's already loaded with a film but I haven't tested it, yet. The first time I tried pinhole photography wasn't very successful and I'm thinking that this time might not be, too. Sigh... but I think I'll still sign up anyway, I just hope I remember to. Haha!

The 3 Great Swingers

Here is the last installment of the paper toys I've already done before I start posting the new ones. Meet The 3 Great Swingers... Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. Thanks to The Paper Pack by Kriegel for the templates. (I also copied how he took photos of the three paper toys. Haha!)

These three were a challenge to make and I'm thinking of doing them again, slowly and carefully this time. (Yeah, I'm OC like that. Haha!)

I'm also planning to make Sammy a little bigger because they look good displayed together except that Sammy's a bit smaller than the other two. It's him or I'll have to make the other two smaller (which I think will be more difficult to build). We'll see...

I just have a couple more templates lined up to be built then I'll wok on these three again.

Paper Toy Time Again

I'll be leaving in a few for the pro-RH Bill rally in Baguio tomorrow (Hello sunburn!) but before I leave, I just want to share something with you because I'm really excited about it. My printer/scanner is now fixed. Yay! The scanner was misaligned for some reason while I was scanning my postcards and since it's a scanner and printer in one, the printer won't function, too, unless I get the scanner fixed first. So, I brought it to the service center yesterday and finally got it fixed. Now, I'm back to making paper toys. Woohoo! Haha! Yeah, I'm this excited about this particular one and this can't wait until get back from my trip (that's tomorrow evening LOL).

So, before I leave for Baguio, I leave you with this...

 

Garbage Pail Kids!!! Yeah, baby! Haha!

Handmade Stationery Sets

I put to use one of the handmade stationery I received from the craft soirée I attended last year by joining a letter-writing campaign. I will tell you more about the campaign next time when my letter already reached its destination. Right now, I just want to show the handmade stationery sheets that I sent the website owner. My crafty hands were itching, I just had to do some crafting. Haha. Here's what I sent her...

Wish I could have done more but I was in a hurry to go to the post office and my hand already hurt from all the doodling. Yes, these are all hand-drawn. As much as I wanted to just digitize my doodle and print it, I couldn't because my printer is still not working. Do you think she'll like it?

I also made another set of handmade stationery, this time for my best friend who's in the country for a short vacation. This time it's not doodled but hand-stamped instead. I used stamps that I recently bought and again on kraft paper.

 

I told her I had something for her and handed the set in an envelope. She opened the envelope right away to take a peek and she liked it.

Bu the way, if you'd like these handmade stationery sets, I do accept orders for them. They're great for personal collection, teachers' gifts, bridesmaids gifts, bridal shower favors, baby shower favors, etc. Just give me a holler and we'll talk about it. :)

I am... unstoppable

I joined Redditgifts last year but only I joined an exchange this year. I joined a very simple one... stickers exchange. As always, I was a buzzer beater and sent my package on the deadline when I had weeks before to do so. My giftee hasn't received it but I hope she'll get it soon and that she'll like it.

On the other hand, my gift from my Stickers Santa arrived last week. I went to the post office yesterday to claim it and here's what I got...



Honestly, I was a little disappointed because I'm not really a fan of dinosaurs and I was expecting more. But I'm starting to love this red dino and thinks that this sticker is really meant for me because I am... unstoppable! Haha!

Completing this exchange got me a trophy on my Redditgifts profile. Yay! And I signed up for my second exchange... the Tim Burton exchange. (Edward Scissorhands!) I'm so excited this and can't wait to see who my giftee will be.