88 items for $8.88 available on 08-08-08

So, what's this all about?

First things first...

August 8, 2008 or 08-08-08 will mark the opening of Beijing Olympics. Watching the Olympic opening or closing ceremony is one of my dreams. Another dream that I have in my heart is to be able to see the Seven Wonders of the World--The Great Wall of China is on top of the list. So, imagine how much I desire to be in Beijing on that date--it's like shooting two birds at the same time.

Last year, I told my husband about it, since it's our anniversary week and he usually treat me with an out-of-town trip I gave him the option. He's been to China several times--Nanjing, Shanghai, etc. but never to Beijing. DH wants to fulfill my dream but he would not be able to arrange the trip. He said he'll just shoulder the expenses and I have to do the rest--contact the travel agency, arrange accommodation though RCI, and other options, plane ticket and yes, renew my passport that expired late last year. It seemed like I have a lot of thing to do but it's a once-in-a-lifetime event in my life so I'm willing to hurdle everything--opppsss. But then so many things happened and I wasn't able to arrange the trip--and when I thought I'm ready for the trip, it's already too late. It was only last week that I was able to renew my passport. My heart still aches for I wouldn't be at the Beijing Olympics on 08-08-08 but DH always console me by saying some athletes have even back-out because Beijing is so polluted and they are more concern of their health.

Next in line...

Last year, my party shoppe closed down because I wasn't able to attend to it personally. It's in our province and 100 km away from where we're staying. I was really wondering how I was able to manage it for two years going there as often as I can. It broke my heart to let it go but then I have more important things to attend to, I have no choice but to give it up. That's when I discovered digital scrapbooking.

I used to make layouts before but there was no elements in them, they are mostly collage or "book-style" layouts. Early this year after making so many QPs for Netta, I thought I wanted to try something new, so I bought my first commercial use bundle from Netta's CVDs at scrap-n-tag, then I bought one after another from different stores. A month passed by and I still couldn't squeeze in my head what theme I would want to work on. I would want to make a teddy bear kit because it's one item that I love to collect. I also wanted to make a wedding kit but I've never seen commercial use stuffs to include in it such as ring, bouquet, etc. Since we sometimes cover weddings as hobbyist photographers, I extracted one from our personal stock photos. Then, after going to the beach, I thought of a beach kit. I love cooking too, so I shifted to start a kitchen stuffs kit. But instead of buying CU items, I just decided to use my DSLR, take photos and extract the items that I would be needing. Soon there were so many extracted items that have been gathering cobwebs and dust in my hard drive and I just don't have complete a kit. Everything were just bits and pieces of something.

Now, it begins...

Last May, two things came to my mind, after buying a grab bag and I still cant finish a complete kit, I just decided it's time to limit buying them. Then, I thought would just pack the items that I extracted and sell them for commercial use. I guess, established designers and those who are more creative will be able to use them magnificently in their kits. So aside from those numerous extracted stuffs, I thought I would extract some more. I noticed that I don't have flowers in my stuffs. I looked at our photos and I saw this folder with some plants and flowers taken by either my sister, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, nieces, and DH. There were also some photos of different things in another folder. DH was the first one to own a digital camera in the family (six years ago) and everybody wanted to play with it, that's why we have a lot photos of inanimate objects. Also, when my sister moved to a far away province, she would ask me to buy her Christmas gifts for her inaanak (godchildren) and our nieces. Then, I would photographed each gift and email to her so that she will have an idea what I bought/gave to her inaanak. So, that's where all photos of the inanimate objects came about. I put these thing in a separate folder because I don't want to delete them but I don't think I would want to print them nor mix them up with my other photos either. I'm not really into flower-landscape-nature-object photography. I love portaits, I like capturing a person's expression more than mother nature's granduer. I want people...person...human being. Little did I realize that someday I will be able to use them...and yup, you'll see those scraps here.

Last June, I decided that I will offer them as CU items in my other blog and the release date will be the 4th day of July. I'm in the Philipppines and I would want to have that date memorable for me, LOL. If not for independence day, at least for the release of my first stuffs to be sold. But though the items were already extracted in June, I still have to package them and my mind was still hazy which one to include. I also have no idea how much it will cost and how many items will I put in that bundle. June became a busy month too. My niece was about to be dedicated, the other one celebrating her first birthday, then another will be seven years old. So what's my role in these events? As usual, I made the layouts for the invitations and tarpaulins, prepared the sourvenirs, etc. I was also the one who have them printed in commercial shoppes; send these items through door-to-door delivery (as they all live in the provinces). My sister is 12-hours drive away. Sometimes, I wish I have a personal assistant to do those stuffs for me, ROFL. Then a regular customer of my closed party needs shoppe requested me to cover her son's wedding. I could not say no because she has become a friend too. July was already fast approaching and I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to attend to this matter. But DH said: "no one is pressuring you, no need to rush. Take your time, only you and I know about your July 4th plan."

So I covered my other niece's 7th birthday last July 5, the wedding last July 12 (I had the pre-nup photo-op alone prior to that event since DH was in Qatar at that time. I did a two-song audio visual presentation (AVP) for the reception). Afterwards, my mind is set to plan on this stuff.

Putting the pieces together...

Two weeks ago, when I was finally accepted the fact that we'll not gonna make it to Beijing this August, I just thought of doing something memorable because I'm sure I'll really cry on that day. Lightbulb Moment...tingggg! The "888" idea came along. I'll make that day memorable by offering 88 (I can't make 888 items at this time, LOL) Commercial Use items for $8.88 on 08-08-08. That's the fun and the pun intended. Everything fell into the right place: the price, the number of items, the date of release. So there you have it all, the history of my "MagicMaker Scraps". So we all have something to look forward too aside from the Beijing Olympics on that 08-08-08, don't we? Oh well, Ecclesiastes 3: 1 is very real to me at this time..."There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven." (And I'm still looking forward seeing the Great Wall of China and watch an Olympic game someday).

By the way, my passport is scheduled to be delivered on 08-08-08 too.

Now, Scroll down to see all the 88 items...