bad girls

Bad girls, bad girls
Whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do
When they come for you

HEHE. I just received the latest Bad Girls newsletter and saw myself in there! *wink!*

This month we are heading far, far away (well, to most of us :p) and looking to Philippines saying hello to our May Bad Girl Christine Villacarlos! Christine is 38 and lives with her husband of nine years, Gerard, and their two children Nikki (8) and Ian (5). She claims she's a true Bad Girl because she "subs to the 'best-est', 'bad-est' kit club in town =)" - oh yeah - and her nick should be a testament to Bad Girl as well, being pink_lemonade and we all know what the deal is with pink and Bad Girls eh? :p

Alright - let's start with the most pressing question for the moment being: Why call yourself pink_lemonade??
Nothing really special to that name - I just love how it sounds.. and of course, I love drinking pink lemonade =)

Okay, so what do you do?
I am a Dietitian by profession but for some reason, I ended up working in the hotel industry. I was in the hotel food and beverage department for about 12 years but because I wanted to be closer to home and have more time with the kids, I switched gears and decided to try out the education sector. I got quite a surprise - I found out (too late!) that teaching could be just as demanding as being a hotelier! But I do enjoy what I do. I have been teaching Restaurant Operations to college students who are in the Hotel and Restaurant program for 4 years now.

That sounds very interesting and it's nice that you do something you enjoy :) So what about the other thing you obviously enjoy to do - scrapbooking - how did you find this hobby?
In high school, I fell in love with my classmates' scrapbooks and resolved to make my own. We would just glue down photos and all sorts of ephemera, mostly non-archival, I think. This was at a time when kraft albums were all the rage among high school girls in Manila. I took a break when I started preparing for my wedding (in the late 90s) and then decided to take it up again when my kids' photos started piling up sometime in 2006, especially after I saw gorgeous archival-safe products in the market.

So cool! And Bad Girls? How did you find us?
I chanced upon Bad Girls when Iris Babao-Uy announced she made the Design Team and then I signed up for the Bad Girls Academy. I couldn't stay away from Wendy's gorgeous kits so I took a sub not long after that.

Neat - I am glad you found us!! And Iris and Wendy are such enablers!! :D So what sizes do you scrap and what do you do with your pages?
I do mostly 12x12s. I used to be so anal about slipping them into page protectors and putting them in albums right away, but since I now tend to get more pages done in one sitting, I end up letting my pages gather dust before I do anything else with them, LOL! I am now loving the MM post-bound album for its space-saving feature but I do have my fair share of D-ring album types which I also love.

Teehee. Sounds like excellent album choices by the way :) So how do you start a page - what do you do?
I try to match the moods of my photos with my papers or vice versa. Sometimes, I use a sketch as a guide or I start working with a challenge in mind.

And describe your perfect day of scrapping..
I'd say it would be perfect if I didn't have to go to work!! HAHA! Of course, it would even be more ideal if I had lots of inspiration and all the supplies I'd need to work with.

Hehe the latter is so true - wouldn't be lovely to know exactly what you want to do and have everything you need to do it all the time?? So..do you have other hobbies?
Uhm, does scrap shopping count???

Maybe...
I also love stamping and making cards.

So tell us - how is scrapbooking in the Philippines??
Judging by the size of scrapbooking in the US, the community of scrapbookers in the Philippines is still relatively small, but it is gradually increasing. When I started scrapping, there were only a couple of stores offering scrap materials for sale, but now I am happy to announce that we have several stores to get goodies and scrap fixes from! I actually get more done when I scrap on my own, but I try to attend mini crops from time to time.

Neat! So - anything you want to tell the Bad Girls out there?
Be yourself, play by your own rules - but be respectful of others. And don't be afraid to cut up those papers! HAHA!! I used to be so scared to do anything with my pretty papers until I realized they look so much better with photos and in albums!

Haha excellent advices!! Thank you so much for being with us today Christine!! And thank you for sharing these two lovely layouts featuring previous Bad Girl kits!!