Thursday, April 26, 2007

Quickutz Galore!

Finally the box from Scrapping Gals arrived! We've been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting (I think you get the drift) for this box which left the USA on the 4th April 2007. Normally it only takes a week to arrive but this time we had to wait 3 weeks. Turns out the box arrived on the 10th April but was held up by customs cos it arrived badly damaged. The thing is they didn't send any notification of arrival card and if JG hadn't gone to the Post Office to ask for it, I'm not sure that they would ever have sent word. I'm still not entirely sure of the Post Office's rationale of keeping silent about the box for 2 weeks.


Anyway, a million thanks must go out to JG cos he had to sneak out of the office to get the box. You're a STAR! Woohoo and look at what arrived...loads of Quickutz fonts and die shapes for me!!






All these were bought during SG's 15% storewide sale last month. 15% savings on all QK stuff...what an opportunity not to be missed!! I bought some animal and dino dies cos I would like to start on a dino page for Ty and maybe scrap the zoo pictures from last year (inspired by Scrappaway's mini zoo album).


I had long debated over which Die-cut tool to get and finally settled for a Quickutz ("QK") last year mainly for its portability...not that I would wanna cart it around with me cos it turns out to be a little heavy.





The only drawback with a QK squeeze is that the size of your dies (and therefore the size of your fonts and shapes) is limited to a 2x2. But then they came up with the Revolution....


The Revolution solves the size limitations of the QK so it is safe to say that I already have something else on my wish-list now....hehehe.





Oh and I just had to post this picture of Ty monkeying around. We tried to get him to lie in a sexy pose but I guess the "I feel sleepy" pose will do for now. Haha. I'm gonna have to keep the dino dies away from him as he already thinks they all naturally belong to him.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Crop Nite - Mini Drawer Set

Last Friday was a blast! Nothing bad happened (Friday the 13th) but oh so much good. Went for Shabby's Crop Nite and there was a project planned for us all to do. I didn't think it would take the whole night to complete the project tho so I had brought other projects of my own. Little did I know...hehe. We started with this...






Progressed on to become this...







And after much cutting, sticking, hole punching, eyelet setting and err...knotting (I had lots of help with this last bit cos I was in a real hurry to get home...overflowing milk ducts will do that sometimes) the end result...










I've not started on the embellishments for the drawer set yet. So its still sitting on my desk at home. It is meant to sit on my office desk and store paper clips, my tiny eraser, staples, and err...more paper clips. Ok alright I confess...it is meant to be a brag piece to my colleagues. So after its has been viewed several times, it can come home and be more useful in storing my brads, eyelets, flowers, etc, etc. :-)

I think this was the first time that I had been to Shabby's and left without a shopping bag. Seemed strange but then, I had only just been there the Tuesday before...hee. Thanks again Shabby for the great time, great company, great food (loving those sandwiches Princess) and great SWENSEN's ice cream. [edit - Thanks must also go to the 'K' cousins who helped me take the brilliant photos of my drawer set in progress - Cheers!] Until the next crop nite.....

Thursday, April 12, 2007

H's farewell party and gift

Friday 6th April 2006 was the date for H's farewell dinner. Organized by JG and a good time was had by all. The food was yummy...well it looked yummy but I'm sure it tasted yummy too. It was Good Friday and a 'no meat' day for me so I didn't have any but pictures had to be taken. Maybe a food LO for H to commemorate that night?? Hehe. There was coffee lambchops (I may go back to try this dish), butter prawns, juicy looking chicken and my all time favourite, the salad cakoi with stuffed prawns!! Drool. (N.B - Panda you probably recognize the food eh)






So after dinner, H was presented with his farewell gift made especially by JG, who has so generously allowed me to post pics of it here. Thanks JG. Below is just a teaser actually as I need to wait for The Hubby to edit the photos for me properly to show the whole LO. But suffice to say, I think it looked great and it allowed the colleagues in the office to post farewell notes for H which he can remember 4eva.





The coloured cardstock was made to resemble little Post It notes. Brilliant huh! They were attached to the LO with brads and looks so real. Loving the idea JG!!

Friday, April 06, 2007

Maya Angelou


When I was in University, I picked up a couple of books by Maya Angelou and was immediately hooked. They were a series of autobiographical books and her prose really touched me.

I found this poem/quote by her on a birthday card belonging to one of my colleagues who had it displayed on her desk and it really touched me particularly at this stage in my life. I was thinking of using the quote in a LO to remind me to basically LOVE LIFE!!

Love life,

engage in it,

give it all you've got.

Love it

with a passion

because life truly does

give back;

many times over,

what you

put into it.

by Maya Angelou

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Mini Accordion Album - Part 2


Finally finished the mini album I made at Shabby. Don't mind the shoddy photos...hehe was in a hurry to take the pics and get to bed. I love the embossed paper so much that I was loathe to cover it with too much stuff. There wasn't much space for journalling so I had to hide them behind the photos.






I printed the photos with my Epson R800 photo printer on glossy paper and I was surprisingly pleased with how it turned out. And yes, by that, it means that I have had the printer for almost 3 years (bought from Challenger, Singapore) and have hardly used it. Hee. Unfortunately, I didn't count on the ink of the photos coming off when in contact with even the slightest sticky substance. Aarrgh! I only realized this when I put a rub-on on one of the photos and got a really distressed effect. Haha..it is rather cool actually but the ink also came off when it touched the glazed chipboard pieces on the opposite pages.



Album Materials: Patterned paper: K & Co; Ribbon: American Crafts; Chipboard.

Materials: Textured Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned Paper: Chatterbox; Chipboard Tag, Glaze and Acrylic paint: Making Memories; Tab die-cut: Quickutz; Sticker: DCWV Quote Stack; Tag Template.


Materials: Shaker Box: Carolee's Creations; Chipboard Flourish, Acrylic Paint and Glaze: Making Memories.

I matted the shaker box on cardstock to match the photo mat.





Materials: Rub-on: Deja Views; 3-Dimensional and Quilled Safety Pins: Stand-Outs by Provo Craft; Die-cut Tab: S.E.I



Materials: Textured Cardstock: Bazzill; Metal Tag: Scrapping Gals; Twist Tie, Chipboard corners, Acrylic paint and Glaze: Making Memories; Die-cut Alphas: Quickutz (Studio Skinni-Mini).




I had a good time making this mini album and very quickly, I managed to record Jay's birth details (on the 1st hidden tag) and the 1st thing people said about him when they saw him (on the 2nd hidden tag). Achieving this has inspired me to create more mini albums to record particular events rather than doing pages and pages. What I figure is great about mini albums like these are that they are very portable (for showing off...hehe), take up very little space (unlike those big 12x12s) and we don't really need lots of embellishments to fill up the spaces, meaning to say less time required and....dare I say it...less spending on new supplies...probably NOT!!! Haha.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Check out Laine's Papeterie online!

For all those who used to, and still do, scrapbook shopping whenever you go to Singapore, I'm sure you've all been to Laine's Papeterie in Wheelock Place (3rd Floor same as Birkenstock). Well check it out...they now have a website and best of all...a blog that will showcase all the new and exciting arrivals that they get every week. Imagine that...new scrapbook stuff that comes in EVERY WEEK! Thank goodness I don't live in Singapore. I would be bankrupt in no time!!

Laine's really hip and happening now. I went to Singapore in Sept 2005 for a girly weekend and my ex-colleague who was there for the 2nd half of her patent drafting course showed me an article in SHAPE magazine featuring Elaine and Laine's Papeterie. Yup you read it right...SHAPE magazine...a mag for exercise and keeping fit that did a short review of a scrapbooking shop. And my friend who was into keeping fit and healthy bought the mag, showed me the article when I got to her room and I was at Laine's almost immediately. I must have spent like 3 hours in that shop and when I left, there was a $800++ dent put on my then basic credit card, I made instant VIP member with immediate discount given and made friends with Elaine and Sharon, who remember me...the girl from Brunei...whenever I visit the shop. Haha. On my last visit to Singapore in September 06, I even met Elaine at the Zoo and I was like gee who is this lady...look so familiar. Then when she says hello and asks if I've been to the shop yet...it clicked...oh ya...Elaine!!

I think my best visit was last year in May 06 when I was on transit to Cambodia. I popped into the shop with my trolley bag, told Sharon I only had 45 mins before I had to leave for the airport and still managed to leave with a $500++ bill and a super heavy trolley bag!! Whew...its a good thing their shop space is not that big else I might have missed my connecting flight. :-)

Newsletters from Laine's used to sign off with only 2 names (Elaine and Sharon) and now its signed off with 7 names. Its amazing to see how they have grown in just 2 short years! Not only that, they have a new space opening soon that's 1000sq ft big. I checked with The Dude and that's 2 and a half times bigger than my parent's den where we watch tv. Jazz...that's HUGE isn't it and can accomodate classes for 20 people!! I'm not entirely sure of the location of Laine's Designer Studio (somewhere in the east of Singapore or is there a mall called East?) but be sure that I will visit when I'm next in Singapore!