In collaboration with Craft Party PH and Life Documented Manila, I taught my first ever workshop since moving back to Manila. It was a morning filled with lots of pretty paper, stamps, embellishments, family photos, stories, and women eager to tell and keep their Christmas memories creatively.

When Nica and Mia of Craft Party PH invited me to teach the workshop, I said yes in a heartbeat. I had been dreaming and wanting to teach for a while, waiting for the right time and opportunity to come. My love for documenting memories using Project Life and pocket scrapbooking has always given me the drive to share it with others, and I knew teaching the workshop was the perfect time for me to start.

With Craft Party PH organizing and ironing out the details, and Life Documented Manila providing materials and supplies, we held the workshop on the morning of January 16 at The Open Space in Jupiter, Makati. Fresh from all the Christmas and New Year festivities, all the gatherings, the memory making and the photos captured, we preserved our holiday stories by documenting them in mini albums.

For the kit, the participants were provided with a 4″x6″ album by Simple Stories, and a share of Project Life cards from Becky Higgins’ Deck the Halls Value Kit. This included a total of 30 pieces cards and a variety of holiday-themed embellishments. To top it off, Life Documented Manila generously gave each participant a set of their Paskong Pinoy cards, plus some plain white journaling cards, for free! The whole kit screamed Christmas, giving the perfect frame to complete our holiday albums.

Throughout the workshop, everyone was also spoiled with a colorful supplies buffet care of Life Documented Manila. Think one whole table filled with pretty paper, stickers, washi tape, alphas, embellishments, ephemera, Christmas-themed stamps and lots of colorful stamp pads! It was a holiday craft heaven, really! Everyone enjoyed trying out each tool and playing around with all the embellishments that were available.

To a group of eager memory keepers, I talked about Project Life and how it has added fun and creativity to my style of documenting special moments. This scrapbooking system is so easy and simple, anyone, even non-creatives, will find it a thrill to make. I discussed the essentials and the basics, and demonstrated how easy it is to fill up an entire album with photos and stories.

Aside from the basics of pocket scrapbooking, I also shared a few creative ideas to decorate pages and layouts. These included tips on layering elements, embellishing, creating shaker pockets and card pockets, as well as making unique cards using stamps, patterned paper and other ephemera. Bringing in some holiday baubles and mementos, I made suggestions on how to decorate using used wrappers, ribbons, tags and holiday keepsakes. With each idea and technique that I showed, the participants were able to tell their stories creating fun and merry layouts, adding their own touch and character to each memory.

To fuel everyone as they worked on their layouts, Nica and Mia treated us to some trays of yummy cookies and pastries. We paired these with bottles of Bright Vanilla Cold Brew, thanks to Shophouse Coffee Co.

It was great to see the participants engrossed in their creative storytelling. I loved how each one worked on their albums, adding their own style to their layouts. It was even more inspiring to see all the artful ideas everyone came up with themselves. Being surrounded by women, eagerly gathering all their holiday photos, writing down special memories, and creating an entire album filled with Christmas joy and cheer, nourished and cured the festive hangover that I was feeling. What a lovely sight it was to see each participant go home with their very own mini album of holiday memories, ready to be shared and treasured.

A big thank you the girls of Craft Party PH (Mia, Nica, and Fhely) for organizing the workshop, and for inviting me to share my style, tips and techniques in pocket scrapbooking. Thank you for the trust! And an extra special thank you to the girls of Life Documented Manila (Yam and CH) for supplying our materials and for so generously providing the craft supplies buffet. Thank you so much for all the help!

And of course, thank you to all the participants. This workshop has inspired me to keep making and creating, and has sparked my desire to continue sharing my craft.

Don’t forget to follow A Crafted Lifestyle on Facebook if you want to be updated.

When the girls of Life Documented Manila launched their Kain Na Stamp Set, I was in love. I knew I had found my favorite food stamps. Designed by  Christine Herrin and Kitty Jardenil, the Kain Na Stamp Set is one that every Pinoy foodie can definitely relate to!

With Pinoy phrases like Kain Na, Masarap, Merienda Time, Extra Rice, and my favorite Kain Tulog Repeat, there are many different ways to use them. Here are some examples of how I’ve played with them:

Pocket Scrapbooking

I documented my Christmas 2015 in a 4×6 mini album early this year, and the Kain Na Stamp Set was perfect to highlight the overflowing food that happened during the holidays.

Using both the On The Menu and the Masarap stamps, I added them to my Paskong Pinoy cards and made a little flip-up card to jot down the simple spread that we feasted on for Noche Buena.

The Treat Yourself stamp was a great addition to this spread full of my food photos. I stamped it on white paper, trimmed around it and glued it on a grid card to make a unique 2×2 filler card.

Making Filler Cards

When I don’t find cards to match my current pocket scrapbooking spread, I always resort to making my own. The first thing I usually reach out for? Clear stamps. They are quick and inexpensive tools to designing unique cards.

For the card on the left, I used the Merienda Time, Gutom Pa, and Kain Pa stamps to make a simple text pattern on white cardstock. For the card on the right, I stamped the Kain Tulog Repeat stamp on plain white paper, trimmed around the circle, then simply glued the new embellishment on another Paskong Pinoy filler card.  These were so fast and easy to do, each card only taking about five minutes to make.

Making Lists 

I’m an avid list maker. I write several lists on the daily, from grocery lists and to-do lists, to random ones just for the sake of making lists. The other week, I jotted down my current favorite restaurants in the metro. The Masarap stamp made for a perfect heading.

Planner/Journal

My planner is mostly a mini-journal where I write quick notes and doodles of what I did that day, and less of a to-do-list kind of planner. It just helps my mommy brain remember the little details, perfect for when I need to document them in my scrapbook.

I used the Kain Na Stamp Set to fill up an entire page in my weekly planner last January. I love how each stamp added character and brought life to the page. Stamping also made the whole process of documenting my week more fun.

I love how versatile the Kain Na Stamp Set is. There are so many possibilities and ways to use it, it has already become a staple in my scrapbooking and planner arsenal.

Start stamping away and get your own Kain Na Stamp Set over at Life Documented Manila.

There’s just something about a blank page. Though fraught with uncertainty, the promise of all the possibilities, the opportunities and the hope of great things to come, are enough to give one the drive to dive head on.

Today, I am excited to finally kickoff this new beginning. This fresh start.

Hello! Welcome to A Crafted Lifestyle!

First and foremost, let me introduce myself. I am Anna Ignacio. Some of you may know me from my previous blogs, or maybe from my Instagram, as annings.

Sixteen years ago, I started blogging with the sole purpose of documenting my life. I wanted to write, using my blog as a digital record, so I could easily look back at memories I wanted to preserve. From a regular blogger, posting snippets of my life and my experiences on the daily, blogging quickly took a backseat when marriage and motherhood happened.

Raising a family and managing a home takes a whole lot of energy, attention and time, and balancing it all while trying to squeeze in some online journaling became a bit too much for me to handle. So I stopped, and for a while I concentrated on my family.

While stay-at-home mother and homemaker turned into my job titles, I made sure not to be defined by them. It was easy to get caught in the whirlwind of chores, cooking and never-ending to-do lists, but I didn’t want those titles to stop me from nurturing my love and passion for the arts. I immersed myself in calligraphy, hand lettering, painting, scrapbooking, different types of crafts, and even picked up the art of bento-making and food styling.

Marriage and motherhood hasn’t stopped me from making art. Art is my therapy, but it’s simply not just an escape from the busy life of managing a home. Art is what makes this journey more exciting and fun. It brightens our days and nourishes our home. All the touches of art and the crafty activities have helped me be a better wife and a more involved mother.

Being a homemaker has given me the drive to be more creative and to use the everyday to find ways to live A Crafted Lifestyle.

It is in this note that I took the plunge and finally started a blog again.

I am not new to blogging, but this time I wanted a fresh start. A clean slate. I want to go in a different direction with a new purpose.

A Crafted Lifestyle will be my platform to inspire others to create and pursue the life that they dream.

This blog will not like be my previous domains where memory keeping was my main purpose. Instead, I will use this as a tool to share how fun and easy it is to insert creativity into the everyday.

Through scrapbooking, calligraphy, photography, simple styling, DIYs, tutorials and all sorts of fun crafts, I will share tips on how to brighten up your homes and lives.

Join me as I embark on this new journey. It’s going to be a whole lot of fun, I promise!