Preserving Lifetime Moments

Card and LOs

2009-03-05T17:19:00.008+08:00

Just showing some old stuff that I did awhile ago. The simple birthday card was for a fren's son who turned one last year. The 'H' represents the little boy's initial and was from a pack of MAMBI monogram rub-ons that I have had for yonks. The envelope was decorated with scraps from a mini album project.

Below was a LO I did at a crop afternoon at SD a really long time ago. I'm a pretty slow scrapper and I had to bring this one home to finish properly.

Materials:- Cardstock: BBP; Patterned Paper: K & Company; Felt flower Border: Queen & Co; Alpha Thickers: American Crafts; Acrylic clock: Heidi Swapp; Metal Embellishment: Making Memories; Pen: ZIG.

Below was another LO done at a crop party organised by SIC...again quite some time ago. The only finishing touch i did was to add the flower rub-on at the corner. Couldn't think of anything else that I could do with the LO. :-)

Materials:- Cardstock: BBP; Patterned Paper: Making Memories; Alpha Thickers: American Crafts; Flower Rub-on: Fancy Pants Design; 3-D embellishment stickers: MAMBI; Pen: ZIG.

TFL

SIC DT Challenge for Feb 09

2009-03-03T10:07:00.005+08:00

The SIC Feb challenge is now over (sorry for such a late post on it) and the submissions received were really great. Below was my take for my first ever challenge which was to simply use brown and orange on your LO or altered project. I love the combination of brown and orange since it has always worked really well for me. I sure hope everyone had fun trying these colours.

Materials:- CS: BBP; PP: (?); Rub-on Sun: Fancy Pants Design; Acrylic hearts: Heidi Swapp; Journaling note & Arcylic paint: Making Memories; Alphabet Stickers: Provo Craft; Alpha rub-ons: Heidi Grace and MAMBI; Wooden Butterfly: Buzz & Bloom.

Yup believe your eyes cos its a new post....finally

2008-12-06T16:15:00.001+08:00

So yes i've been kinda out of it for awhile. Ok ok for a long while. Its just been a pretty crazy hectic past few months and the mojo for scrapping went away for quite some time.

So what have I been up to these last few months. Well, I've been traveling a lot. A heck of a lot actually. Singapore in July, KL twice in August, Hong Kong in September, Qatar and Singapore in October and soon to be Korea in 2 weeks time.

Hong Kong was a family holiday and we took the kids to Ocean Park and Disneyland. It was the start of the Halloween season there and probably not the best time to go with little kids in tow. Disneyland was actually scary instead of fun. LOL. And we didn't even get to go into the haunted house.

Tyler's breakfast at the Park

The most notable purchase we made in Hong Kong's Toys R Us became what is probably the most exciting toys the kids have had in a long time. I think The Hubby decided he needed his own army and voila....

Dart tags anyone?

The kids now call him 'Commander' and that title has stuck till now. Unbelievable!! LOL.

Qatar was for work. It my first time to the middle east. A good time to go as it was almost winter. Still hot and dusty but a more tolerable temperature than in the summer. Yup it actually gets cold in Qatar for about 2 months in Dec and Jan (about 7 degrees). The only thing that sucked was the super long transits in Dubai airport which is the most un-interesting airport. It was packed full of people sleeping everywhere. And when I say everywhere, it was quite literally everywhere in the lounge areas. They were under the chairs, behind pillars, right on the walkway itself, all huddled under thin blankets and some using their slippers as pillows. As far as I could tell, most were migrant workers from India and Bangladesh. I guess their flight connections were far worse than ours.

A street scene in Doha, Qatar (mind you the stretch Hummer was an unusual sight)

Ty has since finished his last year at Jigsaw Playschool. He'll be moving to a new school for KG2. His year ended with a fabulous performance at his school concert. I say fabulous because he gets stage fright just like me. At last year's concert, he did not make it up onto the stage as he threw up just as the concert was starting. This year, he got nervous at home and could not swallow his dinner. But with great encouragement we got him to there and stayed with him till stage time and he was FABULOUS!! It was a Bollywood dance and he did all the moves perfect!! I quite literally had tears in my eyes...hehe yes i get really emotional like that.

Ty, my Bollywood prince

Whew, what a long post already - but don't worry we're almost caught up. Onto the scrapping scene, I got made DT at this place. The first time I ever tried out to be a DT. So far, we've had 3 challenges and I've done 2 LOs and a card challenge there. The latest challenge is up and ready and it is to create a LO without using the standard square shape. Circles, ovals, rectangles are ok but not a 12x12 LO. Go ahead and check it out here.

The first Challenge for October 2008

The second challenge for November 2008 in conjunction with Card Making Day

The third challenge for December 2008

Also, Shabby Chic has been having its 2nd Anniversary Sale - 30% off and the last day is tomorrow!! So all you scrappers out there who still think you do not have enough supplies, you'd better haul ass there. I've already just been...again!!! Hee. As part of their celebrations, Shabby brought over their 2 DTs from Singapore and together with this fabulous gal, they organised a Crop Party (which i managed to attend) and lots of great classes (which I couldn't attend for reasons seen below). We had lots of fun with games and prizes.

Shabby Chic's Crop Party 2008

The Altered Mirror we created with DT Sharon's help

Sadly I couldn't attend any of Shabby's classes cos I was...camping!! Yes I actually slept in a tent on hard solid ground at the beach with no running water and no electricity. Those who know me are probably rolling on the ground in laughter. I'm probably the most anti-mosquito, anti-sand-fly and generally anti-insects person ever (including but not limited to ants, cicadas, worms, hermit crabs, anything that flies really) plus heat averse too due to my chronic eczema. But I'm proud to say I managed (again as this was the 2nd time we've done this) armed of course with my battery operated fans (I had 2 of them) and a bottle of insect repellent which was always in my pocket. And guess what, I always have fun!! Hee.

Guess which tent I was in?

If you made it this far then I salute and thank you for being such an avid reader. Till next time (don't worry the next post won't be too delayed...I hope!)

TOOL SHOUT-OUT

2008-06-07T11:23:00.001+08:00

I love everything there is about scrapping. I love PPs, adhesives and all the embellishments. But I think what I probably love the MOST are the tools available. If there is a new tool that looks even remotely interesting, I'll buy it without a thought.

So a big part of the embellishments available in the scrapping market today are rub-ons. I think most people would be familiar with the wooden ice cream stick that comes with most rub-ons made by Making Memories and Fancy Pants Design to name but a few.

wooden ice cream stick

Then you get the more sophisticated version of the wooden stick. This comes from Heidi Swapp and it has two functional ends (a pointy tip and a slanted edge).

wooden stylus with a pointy tip and slanted edge

American Crafts' version of the "pointy-tip-and-slanted-edge" rub-on tool has the same design but is made of plastic and in what I would think is a cool gun metal grey colour.

plastic version of stylus with pointy tip and slanted edge

Of course you can also BUY dedicated rub-on tools/stylus like the one below made by EK Success. This special tool has a rubber body which makes for easier gripping. The two functional ends are made from hard plastic. You get one flat end and a double slanted edge on the other (sorry best way I could describe it).

EK Success Rub-on stylus

So I have been happily using whichever run-on tool is packaged with the rub-ons that I buy. I keep the EK Success stylus in my tool caddy on my desk but I find that the hard plastic makes for difficult rubbing and if I rub too hard on textured cardstock, the tool would leave "dented" and/or unsightly marks on my cardstock. Personally, I am quite happy with the wooden ice cream stick. But sometimes I still have to put quite a bit of weight on the stick and rub quite hard just to make sure the rub-on is fully transferred. Also, I find that with all the sticks and tool above, I need to rub over the image many times repeatedly to make sure I get every bit on.

But then at Shabby last week, I saw the new Basic Grey Rub-On Roller hanging on the shelf. The Shabby crew tried it out at the Winter CHA and thought it was awesome. I was a little hesitant because of my huge disappointment with the EK Success one but I noticed the roller-ball tip and thought, heck why not. It costs less than $16 and it looks good. Hee. I was just too curious really. So what did I think of it?

HALLELUJAH!

* Cue wondrous and enlightening music (you know what I mean!!) *

The king of all Rub-on stylus (in my humble point of view)

Ok I have only used it on American Crafts and Heidi Grace rub-ons but I should think that it would work the same on rub-ons made by different manufacturers.

The roller-ball tip is just amazing!! It made transferring the rub-on effortless (and I mean that quite literally!!). You only have to rub the roller-ball tip over your rub-on image and voila done! The ease of it made me start hunting around for more rub-ons to use. Haha. The flat edge on the other end is for making sure your image is transferred properly.

The description on its packaging says it all:-

Roller ball rub-on stylus
Rolling ball tip glides smoothly for a controlled application
Flat nylon paddle for setting the rub-on
High-quality design

I think this tool is a MUST-HAVE in any scrapper's tool caddy and it is definitely the best buy of the year for me! Thanks Shabby for bringing it to Brunei!!

Update update read all about it.

2008-06-03T13:00:00.009+08:00

I wont start this post with an apology for not posting in ages. I think I've done that too many times lately. So what have I been up to? A couple of cards, a couple of LOs (which shall be posted another time) and a small item for a charity sale.

First up is a card I did for my beloved cousin who just had a baby. I had the honour of being in the delivery room with my cousin as her husband was away in the UK and till today my pride in my cousin knows no bounds.

Then I did another card for a colleague of mine and her hubby who is an ex-colleague of mine. My colleague just gave birth to a baby boy by the name of Ayden Zahari. How I love that name!! Well done S & H!!

I decorated the plain white envelope as well with a die-cut of a train and a strip of cardstock.

Not sure if you can tell on the card but i went back to my old Fiskars Shapeboss and did a dry embossed border. The Shapeboss is one of the first things I bought for scrapbooking but I find that I hardly have any use for it on my pages cos embossing doesn't really stand out. But now, with the Cuttlebug rage and its oh so brilliant embossing folders, I think the Shapeboss could be rejuvenated for card-making at least.

Last but not least, a small item for a charity drive for the victims of the recent tragic earthquake in China. I was really inspired by Ruey's cards which she posted on a forum but my attempts to scrap-lift her designs did not pan out. So I decided to do a simple cd hanger. Its not much (really felt no mojo) but then again I haven't had much time for anything scrap related lately.

TFL!!

Simple Fun

2008-04-15T00:19:00.004+08:00

I read Panda's blog today and thought this was a fun post to do...(not to mention that it also gives me something to post about - yup my life has been rather unexciting lately).

SCRAPPIN KIDS BLOG FUN

What was your first......

SB item bought? A Fiskars paper trimmer from Inksquisite, Oz
layout? Ty @ 6mths in a Tigger suit
concert? Jewel
handphone? A Nokia brick (quite literally)
boyfriend's name? Kevin
job? A data recorder (don't ask)
vacation as an adult? Inter-railing through Spain
pet? Shared a puppy called Bobby with my brother
designer handbag? Now would that be a fake or an original one? LOL
grade teacher's name? Ms Salwah (i think)

After such a long long break from scrapping, I've finally started again and decided to do a simple page with little or no journaling required. Easiest to do would be a photo that speaks for itself.

Materials:- Textured Cardstock: Bazill Basics; Patterned Paper: DCWV; Chipboard Number: Fancy Pants Design; Vinyl Alpha: American Crafts; Paint & Glaze: Making Memories; Pen: Zig.

I had fun using the Nana Kids stack from DCWV. Love the bright and cheery colours.

On the tv series front, I'm finally caught up with C.S.I Season 8, Grey's Anatomy Season 4 and The Dresden Files which I think only has one season to its name. Next I'm about to start with Private Practice (yup all 9 episodes to date which according to the Hubby has finished downloading just today!). Think my eyes are going square soon. LOL!

On a separate note, its Kiddie Hash weekend this Sunday. Hooray!! Its been AGES since the last one (quite literally 4 weeks i think) and the family is just raring to go. Morley Movers here we come!!

Eye candy anyone?

2008-04-04T23:46:00.000+08:00

Last Sunday night I was in my scrap room just being mojo-less on a half finished page when The Hubby came in and said 2 words - CASINO ROYALE. I dropped everything and rushed out to snuggle on the couch to watch Bond, James Bond.

I'm a HUGE Pierce Brosnan fan especially when he played James Bond. But Daniel Craig ain't so bad in my book either. I thought he was yummy in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider but *gasp* he's gotten even yummier as Bond. Till today Daniel Craig has been on the periphery of my mind. So I thought let's google him to whet the appetite a bit and what do I find but this...

*GULP*
(picture from fitfiend.com)

Mind you, this was at work as well. I obviously didn't get much work done that afternoon. *wink wink*. Boy I can't wait for the next Bond film (Quantum of Solace) to be released. November seems much too long to wait though. But never mind, I hope to have sweet dreams tonight!! (I'm pretty sure The Hubby won't mind. LOL!).

It's been a looooong time...

2008-04-02T21:33:00.008+08:00

...since i last blogged. No excuses really. Just been too lazy to upload pictures onto the blog and not really been scrapping. But I'm happy to say that I'm back in the game and in the past 2 weeks, managed to scrap 2.5 pages. The 0.5 page has hit a brick wall in terms of title and journaling placement so I'm taking a break from that now.

I've also recently joined a scrapping forum called Scrap n Crop along with Jazz, Yu'er, Panda and many more local and overseas scrappers. I've only started exploring it fully last night but I think its gonna be fun!!

But let's see, since mid-Feb, nothing much has been happening. I was in KL in the 1st week of March for a course. Came home with a Nintendo Wii which probably didn't help in motivating me to scrap. Hehe. This time in KL I managed to make my way to........

SCRAPPINGVILLE!!!

(sorry for the shoddy photos)

(Hehe look who I saw on the display window...someone who don't look so sleepless to me)

Unfortunately, I missed Shar by a couple of minutes. Darn!! We'll meet next time ya!! Needless to say shopping was fun. Tee hee.

I also received a LO of Jay from Edleen which you can check out here. It was for a photo swap that we did and I love it. I usually work in 12x12 format so I don't have a 8.5x11 album. But who cares I stuck it in Jay's big album anyway. Thanks loads Edleen. Love the LO and the little RAK that came with it!!

Last but not least, March was the month in which Jay started walking! Hooray. I was feeling that he's been a little bit behind in the development stage...in particular his teething. Haha. To date he only has 6 teeth (4 up and 2 down). But I guess all good things come slowly eh!! Oh but now he's starting to really get into things...including my scrapping stash. Erk!!

Just stick 'em down

2008-02-15T13:50:00.001+08:00

I've been keeping really busy with Heroes Season 2 (finally got round to watching it), then a couple of episodes of Bionic Woman, then came Chinese New Year and now its Valentine's Day come and gone. Whew! And it ain't over yet. This weekend will probably be the BUSIEST for us. Starting tomorrow, we have 4 birthday parties to attend (albeit one is happening at Ty's school in the morning) plus 3 open houses to go to and that's not including our own joint open house at night. On Sunday we have 1 malay wedding, 2 birthday parties, 1 open house and kiddie hash to go to at Crocodile Beach.

So with much thought, planning and decision making, I've decided that we can only attend on Saturday the 1 birthday party in the afternoon, then rush over for a friend's open house that same afternoon. At night, we will split up and I will attend 1 birthday dinner (which is actually my grandma's so really cannot miss lah) whilst the Hubby stays home for the other one and at the same time entertain guests for our joint open house. On Sunday, I've already decided to skip the malay wedding as my present has been 'kirim-ed' (sent) through my colleague and just go for kiddie hash and the birthday dinner at night. Afternoon birthday party and open house will be optional based on how keen we will be on going come the said time as I think we all still need a bit of our Lazy Sunday relaxation.

Again, have not been scrapping lately. Only managed to do one tag for Scrappin Kids'
charity drive so the LO below is something old. I always have trouble getting started on a project of any kind and for this one I tried putting myself in a 'just-glue-and-stick-paper' kind of mode and used coordinating paper from a Basic Grey 6x6 pad. I was even too lazy to pull out my paints so I merely inked the raw chipboard brackets with an ink pad.

Materials: Textured Cardstock: Bazill Basics Bling; Patterned Paper: Basic Grey; Cardstock Tag and Die-cut stickers: 7 Gypsies; Chipboard Clock: Cherry Arte; Chipboard brackets: Fancy Pants Design; Ribbon: K & Company and American Crafts; Ink: Tim Holtz and Making Memories; Rub-ons and Staples: Making Memories; Pen: American Crafts.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!

2008-02-07T21:22:00.000+08:00

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR TO ALL MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

A very belated post

2008-01-30T21:28:00.000+08:00

A very belated post indeed! After The Hubby went off on his business trip, he only came back for 4 nights before going off again and he's been off ever since. So with the start of the new school year with Ty in the morning session now and getting back to work, its been crazy hectic! Coupled with the both kids getting sick, Ty with a cough and cold which then triggered Jay's asthma...let's just say blogging let alone scrapping has been the last thing on my mind. Nevertheless, I did manage a couple of LOs but I'll save them for another time.

I've been meaning to show how I spent my xmas day. And i've finally gotten round to uploading the pics. I went to visit my cousin Rozi who is a very very gifted artist. The aim was to discuss a book that I wanted to commission her to do for my sister's bday. Rozi works full time but loves to spend as much time as she can in her studio creating unique works of art in the form of paintings, handmade books and anything that she puts her mind to really. When I got to her studio, she showed me a book that she had only just recently finished and I fell in love with it immediately!! We ended up talking for hours and hours, continued with a visit to another cousin's house after a late lunch and I came home with 2 beautiful books.

Simple but beautifully wrapped with textured paper:

Red & Gold double-sided notebook with charm shells:

Mini Orange notebook with threaded cover:

I think my photos haven't done Rozi's work much justice. But you can check out her site here for better photos of her work which also includes one of a kind Engagement Folders (Permintaan Folders) and Photo Albums which can be custom made to order.

I'm so in love with my new notebooks and have already used both. The red and gold one will be used by both The Hubby and I. A sort of HIS & HER book for our personal thoughts and we're not to read whatever the other has written in his or her side of the book without express and explicit permission. Hee...it will be such a test of discipline for me I think.

The Mini Orange notebook I've used to note down whatever funny things Ty says nowadays. But now, i'm so late with my update that I have acquired another FABULOUS new notebook from Rozi which I'm completely head over heels in love with. My sis has also got her lovely birthday gifts. But I shall now leave that for another post....

Christmas gifts

2007-12-26T12:05:00.000+08:00

Another xmas has come and gone and I was better prepared for gifts this year then ever before. I normally start looking for gifts in June/July but usually its when I'm overseas that I keep my eyes peeled. The Hubby actually helped this year by getting some from KL. I was kinda stumped for xmas gift ideas for 2 people at one point and then I checked in on Michelle's blog, something that I hadn't done for quite some time and saw that she had altered cds into door/wall hanging plaques. My SIL3 had done this last year but she stuck magnets onto hers. I had recently bought a craft drill from Fiskars (see below) and thought it would be perfect for drilling holes thru the cds for ribbon loops.

So I came up with 2 plaques rather quickly the night before xmas eve. The first one was very simple and the comments I got were that it was too simple. So I added a couple more rub-ons, some chipboard arrows and a small flower. I liked it simple and decided to keep it that way.

Materials:- Textured Cardstock: Bazill Basics; Rub-on clock and clear overlay: Making Memories; Cardstock sticker: 7 Gypsies; Chipboard arrows: American Crafts; Alphabet stickers: Provo Craft; Alphabet stamps: Hero Arts; Flower: Prima; Ribbon: P2P and Ink: Inkadinkado.

So for the second one, I decided to add a little more embellishments. Found a perfect cardstock sticker with bigger wording. Used a bigger clock rub-on and a bigger flower. I liked both in the end but I gotta admit, the 2nd one turned out much nicer. I guess it just takes practice.

Materials: Textured cardstock: Bazill Basics; Cardstock stickers: Cosmo Cricket and K & Co; Rub-ons: Fancy Pants Design and Making Memories; Chipboard arrows: American Crafts; Flower: Heidi Swapp; Bling brad and ribbon: Making Memories.

I used the same colour cardstock for the base mainly because I was too lazy to pick out another colour and I also thought blue could match with anything from brown, orange and red. Also didn't bother with any patterned paper...short of time you know. :-) I'm also in love with my Fiskars craft drill. It's such a great buy!!

Xmas eve was pretty boring. My own family are away except The Dude who had to work in the evening. Went out for coffee with some friends...well ice chocolate for me really since I don't drink coffee. Was kinda sad that The Hubby wasn't around to spend my birthday with me but the friends perked my mood up. I also got lots of text and FB wishes so thanks guys!! Its strange to no longer be in my 20s anymore but here's to a bigger, better and hopefully more scrap productive 30s. Haha!!

I spent most of xmas day with one of my very talented cousins. But I'll post more on that soon....

Update: For those who own the Crop-a-dile by We R Memory Keepers, you can easily punch a hole thru cds with it. The holes are super neat and the Crop-a-dile makes it so effortless. So I think I shall be putting my craft drill aside for now. LOL. I read about this in an old issue of Scrapbooks etc. I tried it out and was bummed i didn't know about it earlier. No mess no fuss. I'm looking at my crop-a-dile in a different light now.

Merry Christmas!!

2007-12-25T23:35:00.000+08:00

Here's wishing everyone a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Hope everyone enjoyed the hols!

FOR SALE!!

2007-12-21T11:00:00.001+08:00

EDIT: The shoulder tote has been sold.

I've got 2 shoulder scrap totes and too many acrylic blocks, some of which are still in it original packaging and never opened yet. The Hubby has been complaining about the amount of stuff I have so I've decided to try and divest myself of some items. Up for grabs is my first scrap tote by GENERATIONS. It is black in colour with a blue trim and very sturdy in construction. Lots of pockets with a generous space inside for an album and lots of paper. Original price was about B$150 but its now for sale for B$100 only. It is only 2 years old but has hardly been used at all. It is in pristine condition apart from being a little dusty from being neglected by me.

The tote has a loop at the back for securing onto a trolley bag or a wheeled tote. The front has a zip down pocket which opens to reveal lots of pen/scissor loops, 2 zippered mesh pockets and 2 slot pockets. There is a 12x12 folder cum divider inside the main compartment which is removable and another slot pocket inside. And on the cover itself is another 2 zippered mesh pockets useful for storing regularly used stuff like brads and eyelets.

The tote is at Scrapbook Delights if anyone is interested in having a look at it.

I've also got a brand new pack of acrylic blocks by 7 Gypsies. Consists of 1 small and 1 large block. I've never even opened the pack so this is going for B$30 (reduced price) if anyone is interested. I had to fold the package for storage so it looks a little crumpled but its brand new and never used before.

If anyone is interested in the above do leave me a comment or a note in the C-box on with your name and contact number and I'll get in touch with you. Alternatively, you could email me at scrapperholic@gmail.com.

Happy scrappin' to all!!!

Its been ages...

2007-12-19T22:15:00.001+08:00

since my last post. Its been ages since I last scrapped. I kinda felt like a 'pause' button had been pushed on my life since then. But a couple of noteworthy good things did happen such as:-

1) I got the surprise of my life when I went to Shabby for their 1st Anniversary sale and got given the Sizzix Big Shot as a gift!! I mean WOW!!! It was the last thing I expected and it is definitely fabulous!! A zillion thanks to the Shabby crew!!

2) I went on a short getaway to Bali with The Hubby and had a great time away. We stayed in a private villa that came with a private pool. We stayed away from the beach and went on a spa spree instead. If ever in Bali, try out the Dala Spa which is located in the Villa de daun - a fabulous little hideaway smack right in the middle of Kuta. The most exotic spa I've ever been to. We got the Cattleya room and it was every bit as luxurious as it looks.

3) I won a RAK from Yu'er (which I have yet to pick up...my bad). My first ever RAK which is a cool thing.

4) Last but not least, I got given another fabulous gift by a cool scrapping friend from Singapore. This I only found out about last night and it sure made me a happy scrapper. Coffee Beans gave me a big letter A and the word C.R.E.A.T.E which are all by Provo Craft. How cool is that. The letters are white (primed for immediate altering), made from mdf and are a solid half inch or so thick. Love ya CB!!

I'm now on leave till the end of the month which is great. My eczema is slowly clearing up and I hope to start scrapping again but am more focused on spending some quality time with the boys first.

...and the weekend is almost over...

2007-11-04T20:00:00.000+08:00

I think I just had the worst week of my life. First was a last minute trip to KL for a meeting. Now that in itself wasn't too bad if it weren't for the fact that The Hubby was away too so thank goodness for my parents who had to take the boys in. Now I'm not too familiar with KL but my hotel was just behind the KLCC so I was looking forward to some shopping there and maybe a quick trip to Scrappingville too. Unfortunately, I came down with a bug that had me puking my guts out the whole of sunday. I don't think I've ever become so familiar with a hotel room toilet before. On Monday, the nausea abated but the diarrhoea kicked in and trying to concentrate was excruciating especially during and after lunch.

I flew back early Weds morning, went straight to work in the afternoon and ended up staying at work till 11.30pm. The next day wasn't any better with a 10pm end to my work day. Friday was slightly better as I managed to get home for dinner at half seven but there was an 8am meeting on Saturday. Was I ever so glad that the weekend is now here but then The Hubby had to go to Limbang for a funeral on Sat afternoon and then fly to KL today. So I don't think that we've spent a full 24hrs together as a family all week.

My eczema has flared up in full force and no I've not lost any weight. Last night I was commenting to SIL3 that she looked as if she had lost lots of weight and she said it was due to lack of sleep. Boy, if that was me, I'd be ANTM skinny...oh how i wish!!

I was too tired all week to scrap and also missed the deadlines for 2 challenges (Shabby's and Scrappin Kids) but do have something to show.

Materials:- Textured Cardstock: Bazill Basics; Patterned Paper, Foam shapes: American Crafts; Alphabet Stickers: Provo Craft; Others: Corner rounder and various circle punchers.

This is another scrap-lift and I had lots of fun doing it. Used lots and lots of 3D Pop Dots and layered the circle punch outs over one another. The photo of the LO is a little grainy but I like the red border and the kraft colour cardstock (from Ruey's kit). I had some journaling in mind but didn't wanna mess up the design so I ended up doing my journaling at the back of the LO.

I missed the 2 challenges for end of Oct but did finish the photo swap LO I did for Panda. Panda, we gotta meet up for me to pass it to you soon ok.

4 the record

2007-10-13T13:57:00.001+08:00

I think if you ask a scrapper why is it they scrap, they will most likely tell you that they do it to preserve treasured memories for their kids, grandkids, great grandkids etc, etc. And a lot of mummies will scrap pictures of their kids, their kids with their daddies, their kids with their grandparents, etc, etc. And it is just so easy to forget about the mummies who do all the scrapping. Where are the pictures and LOs about the mummies? How will the kids, grandkids, great grandkids, etc, etc remember or get to know about the mummies who create the LOs? I think it is real important to try and capture a little bit about yourself whilst scrapping. To try and note down a tiny bit about what makes you tick, what you like and don't like, what you've accomplished or dream of.

I bought a Clear Expressions overlay for a LO about myself but the photo I had developed was much too big for the overlay so I decided to make my own LO after being inspired by a similar LO in CK's 100th Edition.

Materials:- Textured Cardstock: Bazzil Basics Paper; Fabric Patterned Paper: S.E.I; Plastic Swirls: Making Memories; Chipboard Number: Fancy Pants Design; Chipboard Alpha: American Crafts; Pen: Zig Millenium.

This was not the easiest LO to scraplift. First I had a colour dilemma as I'm not the best at colour coordination. It was also pretty hard to get the curvy lines the way I wanted. I had to buy one of those flexi-rulers from Hua Ho and it is pretty fiddly to use. And then after I had printed the journaling I realized that I had forgotten to add the date. What else could make it harder but to realize that none of my circle punches (and I own 5 different sized ones) were big enough for the circle I had in mind. So I had to handcut it and the edges looks so rough...not to my liking at all. But in the end, it got done and I'm really happy to know that my boys, their kids their grandkids, etc, etc will one day be able to see this and probably think that their mum, grandma, great grandma, etc, etc was a soppy movie and tv nutter who liked junk food and soppy musicians. Tee hee...hope not!!

Selamat Hari Raya!!

2007-10-13T09:05:00.001+08:00

SELAMAT HARI RAYA to all my muslim relatives and friends!!!

Its the start of a long holiday for me...hooray!! First we get a long weekend with Monday and Tuesday off, then it continues with my office being closed till Friday (forced leave with no complaints from me) then it continues some more with me taking a further 2 days off work!! Woohoo!! Oh joy!! Sadly, no overseas trips planned unless its a quick run to Miri. Can't do a quick couple get-away break as my mum has gone off to Perth and there's no one to baby-sit the boys.

I'm hoping to get into the scrapping groove again especially now that I've finished all 3 of Phillip Pullman's books. Turns out that a daemon (referring to my last post) is a person's soul...only its visible in an animal form and can talk to you. Quite a gripping tale and I zoomed through the first 2 books in a frenzy. Just couldn't put them down. Book 3 (The Amber Spyglass) was a little thicker and the plots a wee bit slower but that ended last nite and gee...I was literally in tears over the sad-ish ending. I love the fantasy genre for magic, mystery and lots of good old fashion fighting. None of that sci-fi stuff for me and Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials are one of the best reads I've had in a long time. Thanks to Icklebooks for introducing it to me.

My Daemon Avatar (non-scrap related)

2007-09-27T00:30:00.001+08:00

Last week I went to Icklebooks and its owner recommended a book called The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. And then an old friend of mine suggested I check out this link which is on her blog and whaddya know it's the link for The Golden Compass which has been made into a movie starring Nicole Kidman and yummy James Bond actor Daniel Craig...yes I'm a sucker for cool and suave men like Bond.

So I checked out my Daemon and it turns out looking like a...erm...dare I say...a rodent???!!! Heh its actually an ermine but sure looks like a rodent huh. Hmmmmm... so yeah I think I'll go read the book first. dr.rin, we'll discuss the books after we both finish reading ok!! Hehe.

So go ahead people and tell me if my daemon is really my match. Maybe I'll morph into something else.

Miracle

2007-09-22T06:45:00.001+08:00

Wow it has been a long long time since I last blogged. Been pretty busy at work and so addicted to Facebook that I don't seem to have found much time to scrap *smack wrist*. Plus my scrap room was such a mess from my last trip to Singapore that it just didn't inspire any creativity. I had stuff all over the floor, table and chair till there was no place to sit let alone scrap...LOL. So I'm just showing something old...when creativity was low.

Materials:- Textured Cardstock: Bazzill Basics; Patterned Paper and rub-on: Basic Grey; Chipboard Swirls: Fancy Pants Design and Maya Road; Rub-on title: Making Memories; Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink; Pen: Zig Millenium.

I didn't really like this picture cos the colour seemed a bit off. Simple and plain work and finally got to use some swirls (which I can't seem to stop buying). Used only Basic Grey PP with simple layering. The only fun thing I did was use my Sew Crafty machine by Provo Craft for the first time. I got it from P2P before Mummy Chan sold it and it actually doesn't work the way its supposed to...well I couldn't get it to work as it should. I had to use the manual roller to make it work. But the stitches were great and the machine was very easy to use. It sure beats handstitching and the time it would have taken!!

Its Kiddie Hash weekend this week and I think the whole family is really looking forward to it. We've all got our shoes (football boots actually) and cheap tracksuit bottoms so we're much better prepared this time. I'm hoping the weather will remain dry so the hash won't be muddy. Tee-hee...ya ya I know hashing is supposed to be a 'get dirty activity'...well not for me if I can help it. Ty loves going as he gets to play with stones, sticks and sand...his 3 favourite outdoor material. The hash is open to anyone who's interested (starts at 4pm) and I heard we will be at 'Diplo' this time (near the Culture Youth & Sports Building). Some people bring their babies in backpack carriers and this just amazes me cos the babies plus carrier must weigh quite a bit. If anyone is interested, let me know and I can give you the contact of someone who would know more about the Kiddie Hash.

Laine's Designer Studio Class - Bits

2007-08-27T22:19:00.000+08:00

On my last trip to Singapore, I finally managed to join a class at Laine's Papeterie for the first time. It was their Designer Studio Class and was entitled BITS. For the price of $58, you get enough class materials for two LOs. The class moved at a real fast pace and I was hard pressed to keep up with the instructions being given out by Betty. The good thing was that it was the last class of the month and there were only 3 people in it. So there was plenty of space to spread your stuff around cos as most people who've been to Laine's know, their classroom is pretty small.

I eventually had to leave with one LO about half finished and the second with only the basics completed. I had a great time though and learnt a lot. The class, in line with its title, BITS, teaches you to use bits of everything. From bits of paper and foam to bits of ribbon, cardstock and string.

The class sample LOs were designed by Sharon. I simply adore the first one below. The flower shapes' outlines were traced from Fancy Pants Big Board Chipboard and cut out by hand. I learnt what a running stitch is (ya my knowledge of sewing is sorely lacking) and for the first time inked the edges of my paper with...an inking sponge...LOL. I always inked the edges of my paper directly from the ink pad but am now converted to using a sponge. Ranger sells the sponge in one whole piece which you can cut up into little pieces. I bought a pack of cosmetic sponges from Watsons which work just as well.

Almost all the materials came with the class kit apart from the chipboard alphas which were my own. But Laine's class sample used the same exact one. I used a lot less embellishments but only cos my photo was wide, giving me less space for embellishments. I also used less ribbon on my LO but only because I like a cleaner look.

The title 'Its a boy' was my SIL2's suggestion and it suited the LO perfectly cos the photo is of Jay at about 2 months and everyone says he looks like a girl. And I gotta admit, when he was born, a lot of people said that same thing and when I show people this photo, they all think its a baby girl. Eeps!! He's boy boy boy...just a bit of a pretty boy. LOL.

The second LO was much simpler. We used up one whole piece of cardstock by punching out circles and then overlaying them a la fishscale style. Love this effect. The green and yellow dots are punched out foam circles and these were painstakingly glued down with the help of MM tweezers and GLOO.

And this is the reason I love scrapbooking. I had completely forgotten that Ty used to love tearing up paper when he was about a year old until The Dude gave me these photos. We used to give him old newspapers and he would busy himself by tearing them up to shreds. It would keep him busy and out of mischief for at least half an hour. His hands got awfully dirty but for some moments of peace, it was worth it. I guess we were just lucky he was not in the habit of stuffing things down his mouth. It really makes me feel glad that I can scrapbook this little bit of history for Ty to see and read about when he's older. :-)

Ruey's Kit Part III

2007-08-18T11:02:00.000+08:00

This is the last page from Ruey's Kit. I say it is the last page because I did not do the 4th LO as I used the paper allocated for that on another LO.

This was my first time at actually carving out patterns from a PP. Doing this LO has changed my way of thinking whenever I see PPs now - to see the potential of the individual patterns instead of the paper as a whole. I've also noticed that it has become quite a trend for scrappers worldwide to carve out the patterns as well. This star patterned paper was pretty easy to cut out but I've also discovered that I'm not very handy when it comes to using a craft knife.

All Materials from Ruey's Kit.

Again my attempts at using the Kindy Glitz was rather disasterous in my book. If there is one thing I hate it is inconsistencies when creating a pattern, especially when it has to be in a straight line with preferably the same size and spacing. Humph!

I also had to swap the patterned stars and my journaling block to the top of the page cos my title was too long. It took a bit of arranging to get everything to fit nicely. I'm really happy with the result though, as I was quite glad not to have to compromise on my chosen title.

On a separate note, I managed to find dinosaur PP at Laine's on my last trip. I've collected a pretty fair amount of dino material so far but have yet to do a page on Ty's dino-mania. It has not abated as yet and if anything, his obsession is as strong as ever. I suppose it does not help that we read about dinosaurs everyday before bedtime and that Ty owns at least 12 different books on dinos. At school, his teachers are calling him "Tyler-saurus". I thought that was just too cute!! And on our way to school earlier this week, I asked him why he liked dinosaurs so much and he answered "Because I don't like Barney". LOL...that really cracked me up. Of course I had to tell him that Barney is a kind of dinosaur too...just a purple one that can sing and dance. And to think he used to be obsessed about Barney just one year ago. Wonder what it'll be next year.

August Box from Scraping Gals

2007-08-05T20:13:00.000+08:00

The August box from Scrapping Gals will be leaving on the Tuesday 7th August 2007. So please try and get all your orders in on or before midnight on Monday 6th August 2007 so that your order can be picked and packed in time for release on the next day.

Happy Scrapping y'all.

My Moment of Being Inspiration-less

2007-08-05T18:42:00.000+08:00

Ok so I know most everyone hits a low peak now and again and when the mojo is down...scrapping seems so far far away. I recently came out of a patch like that. Now don't get me wrong, I wanted to scrap but everytime I sat down at my table, nothing seemed interesting. Not even buying new supplies inspired me anymore cos even tho the scrapping came to a halt, the shopping for supplies did not. Hehe.

So in a valiant attempt to try and tidy my scrap room some time ago, I came across a Clear Expressions sheet that I bought in May from Laine's. The Clear Expressions sheet is a piece of clear plastic overlay that is 12x12 in size and all you have to do is choose your patterned paper or cardstock, stick your picture on top, add some journaling and place the overlay in position on top of everything and voila...a completed LO in a matter of minutes.

Materials:- Overlay: Clear Expressions; Patterned Paper: Basic Grey; Ink: Making Memories; Pen: Zig.

Hee, its cheating I know, but completing this LO inspired me to start scrapping again. Sometimes, when inspiration or mojo is low, you gotta do whatever it takes to get it back again. And you gotta admit, the doodles on the overlay is nice. I like doodles but am not very good at it. So this overlay was a perfect solution for me to get some doodles in my album. Hehe...in this situation, sometimes the end justifies the means. :-)

NB: I actually have another Clear Expressions overlay for a "ME" LO. Thought it'd be nice to do one just for me.

Singapore + Scrapbook Shop = Lots of Fun

2007-08-02T23:43:00.000+08:00

I went to Singapore last week for a course which was held at the Hilton Hotel which so happens to be only 2 blocks away from...*gasp*...Wheelock Place...which so happens to be home to...*gasp*...Laine's Papeterie. You don't even have to cross any roads to get there. My favourite place to stay. Haha.

So I left Brunei on Wednesday. Managed to avoid going to the shop on that day but then after my course ended on Thursday, I went over and spent 3 wonderful hours there. On Friday I signed up for the "Designer Studio - Bits" class and had a blast! Watch this space for the LOs once I've completed them. On Saturday, I popped by again...oops and then on Sunday, 3 hours before my flight departure I decided to visit Laine's again to get the item as seen below....

Now I own a Quickutz handtool and have been considering the Revolution. But at Laine's they told me that the Cuttlebug (by Provo Craft) can use Quickutz dies and that the embossing effect of the Cuttlebug is fabulous. After a quick demo, I was sold! Part of what convinced me was also the price of the Cuttlebug's embossing templates....they only cost $14.90 cos its made from plastic. Talk about being affordable. So bye bye Revolution, hello Cuttlebug. Now I can buy the 4x4 Quickutz dies without having to buy the Revolution. Only drawback is that the Quickutz 4x4 embossing plates cannot be used on the Cuttlebug.

The Cuttlebug is also much cheaper than the Revolution. It retails at Laine's for $199.90 but I got a 42% discount on it (all those who have been reading Laine's blog will know bout this coupon book promotion currently happening there).

I'm a happy scrapper!

Girl Bloggers Rock!!

2007-07-23T21:42:00.000+08:00

I've been tagged and what a great tag it is too. No need to think of funny things bout meself. And hot pink rocks!! Thanks Panda. Artyemiss...tag you're it!!

Where's Nemo?

2007-07-07T18:13:00.000+08:00

I have a thing for anything Disney. Love Disneyland, love Disney cartoons, love Disney characters. Love Disney. So I make it a point to go watch Disney on Ice whenever they come to Brunei.

When Ty was almost a year old, I brought him to watch one of the Disney on Ice shows and boy was it an ordeal. He cried and cried when the lights went out and would not stop until we brought him outside. My dad had gotten us front row seats dead centre and he spent the whole time sitting in the foyer of the Indoor Stadium with my dad.

This time round, I figured he must be old enough to enjoy the show properly. Again we managed to get front row seats. Unfortunately, we were running late and by the time we got there the lights had been turned down and the show had started. Ty was not pleased. He refused to go down to our front row seats and wanted to leave. But this time I managed to convince him to hang around at the back and eventually I got him to sit on my lap at an empty back row. During the interval, he allowed us to get to our seats and we watched the rest of the show at our planned seats albeit with him sitting on my lap. For me, this was a successful outing! Progress!! But I think a visit to Disneyland proper might just have to wait awhile. Hee.

Materials: Textured Cardstock: DCWV; Patterned Paper, Acrylic Paint, Fish Buttons: Making Memories; Chipboard Alpha: Queen & Co; Embroidery Floss: DMC; Cloth Tab: S.E.I, Pens: Zig and Ink: Cat's Eye Chalk

I decided to scrap our tickets to the show straightaway as I'm a bit of a procrastinator and have a tendency to lose stuff if I leave them around for too long. The photos were taken at the spur of the moment at night and printed on my Epson photo printer. It was an ordeal in itself to try and get Ty to wear the Nemo hat, hold the programme book and stay still for the photo to be taken.

I didn't want to glue the tickets for the show down onto the LO so I made pockets from strips of patterned paper which had been cut with the Cutterpede Wavy blade. Two pockets for two tickets and the last pocket for some journalling. The B-Mobile top up cards were given to Ty from my mum and dad and were just too cute to leave out. I'm just loving the Queen & Co chipboard alpha as it is just the right size. Not too big and not too small. And by that, those who know me well will have already guessed that I've gone and bought meself another pack of the same chipboard alphas. Tee hee.

July Box leaving on the 7th

2007-07-06T00:01:00.001+08:00

The July box from Scrapping Gals will be leaving the States on the 7th July 2007. So please try and get all your orders in by midnight on the 6th July 2007. Don't forget to put the name "Adeline" in as a consultant so your shipping costs will be taken off your order.

Sorry for the short notice fellow scrappers but I only found out the same thing today. My order has gone out and I will be getting another new Skinni Mini font for my QK. Hooray!!! I really love my Skinni Mini fonts!! Was also drooling over the QK Revolution dies today. I think maybe the Revolution fonts might be a little too big but the shape dies available are pretty interesting.

Ruey's Kit Part II - Bubblicious Fun

2007-07-05T18:15:00.000+08:00

Here's part II of the May kit by Ruey. This one I followed to the letter becuse the title suited my photo perfectly. The only thing I didn't follow exactly was the cutting up of the paper but that was really my fault cos I sliced the pink paper instead of tearing. So then I had to tear a little bit from each half to get the tearing effect which meant my paper ended up much shorter. So you can see a little bit of the blue paper at the top and bottom of the LO. Oops! So then all this affected the number of shapes I could cut out of the leftover paper (as there wasn't much paper left over). To add to that, whilst cutting the big owl from the paper, I accidentally cut off one of its ears...didn't even realize it had ears. So oops and double oops! Hee...in fact, I made the same mistake with the owl you see popped at the top of the LO but I managed to glue the ear bit back on this one. :-)

All Materials from Ruey's May Kit.

I do not own a 7/8" circle puncher so I had to make do with my 5/8" one instead. I inked the edges of the punched out circles, stuck the alphabet stickers on them, cut off the excess corners of the stickers and then re-inked the edges. This didn't turn out too bad. I'm simply loving my kit LOs cos it brings such a fresh look for my album and is so out of the box for me.

Ruey's May Kit - Part I

2007-06-22T18:06:00.000+08:00

What is my greatest love for now...scrapping kits!! So fun and so easy to do plus my LOs look completely differently from my usual boring style which is refreshing for me personally. Hehe...and yes I've only bought one (1) kit to date but what a great kit it is. Thanks Ruey.

I've completed 2 LOs from the kit to date but The Hubby uploaded them separately so i'll post them individually. Hehe...multiple posts coming up.

This was the 1st LO one I did and was started at Shabby Chic's "Ruey Kit's Crop Nite". My favourite so far!! I got some of the patterned paper ('PP') measurements wrong especially since my focal photo is wide instead of long like Ruey's. But I tot it turned out ok. Plus I came up with my own QK Heart shape instead of cutting out a heart shape from another piece of PP (and it was a good thing I didn't cut a heart shape from the other PP as I got my measurements completely mixed up it the 2nd LO which shall be posted soon).

All materials are from Ruey's Kit apart from die-cut heart shape (Quickutz).

The only thing that I am unhappy about is the 3D Kindy Glitz drops on the LO. I thought they would harden completely once dry. But when I put the LO in the album page protector and closed the album, my lovely 3D Kindy Glitz drop effect got squashed. And silly silly me, I didn't not space my drops wide enough or evenly throughout. So if you look at the white drops on my title, you'll notice some fats spots and some too small spots. Ooeer!

But I'm still loving the kit and so Ruey...when is your next kit coming out?

Pooh's Frens The Sequel

2007-06-21T18:16:00.000+08:00

This LO was made when mojo was running seriously low and I had no inspiration whatsoever. But these photos had been sitting on my desk for so long already that I felt something had to be done.

I think my main difficulty was the fact that I had planned for these photos to kind of be a sequel layout to the Pooh's Friends LO which was one of my very first LOs. I still had scraps of the same paper used and wanted to incorporate these to achieve some sort of continuity. The fact that I always enlarge my focal photo did not help.

Materials:- Textured Cardstock: Bazzil Basics; Patterned Paper and wooden frame: Chatterbox; Metal Heart Brad, rub-ons and Funky Fiber: Making Memories, Journaling Tag: Scrapping Gals; Die-cut title: Quickutz, Ink: Cat's Eye Chalk tangerine; Floss: DMC and Pen: ZIG writer.

I did my journaling on a tag, attached it to the page with fiber tied to a brad and the tag is hidden at the back of the page. So, in order to read the journaling, all one has to do is pull on the fiber to bring the tag up. I probably would not have done the journaling this way had I thought about where to put my journaling before I stuck the photos on.

The wooden frame was something that I've always wanted to use. The rub-ons on it was an attempt to jazz it up a bit but errr....looks more like maggots instead. Oops. Hehe.

What's a Zutter?

2007-06-02T08:41:00.000+08:00

I just recently got a book binding machine called a Zutter from Laine's. Surprisingly, the machine itself is pretty small and portable which makes it pretty nifty. I've always liked the double coil wire binds that we get on diaries and notebooks and with the Zutter you can bind your own books and albums at home. I made sure to call the shop to book one machine for myself and sure enough I heard from Sharon at Laine's that it has been really popular. And when I popped by the shop to get the wire coils, some had already been sold out.

(First two pictures taken from Laine's Diary)

Zutter also produces chipboard covers and inner pages in a variety of sizes 8x8, 6x6, 4x4 and 5x7. Each pack of chipboard cover comes with 20 inner pages that come in cream, black or white colours.

You could also use the Zutter for lots of other stuff like punching holes in a shoe box to make ribbon storage. Check out Laine's post for more info.

...PLAY

2007-05-17T21:19:00.000+08:00

I'm a self-confessed shop-a-holic for scrapping supplies. My stash grows every month to the point where my scrap room is overflowing with unused supplies. I love seeing and buying all the new stuff that is produced by the fabulous manufacturers and I equally love the feeling I get when I actually open up my new stuff and use them on a LO. And then I end up doing LOs like the one below....hehehe...and I get asked how I can justify spending so much money on new stuff when all I end up using on a LO are just strips of one patterned paper, some brads and chipboard alpha and a white pen. Oh let's not forget the adhesives (roller glue and photo mounts). :-)

Materials: Textured Cardstock (Bazzil Basics), Patterned Paper(Basic Grey), Alpha Chipboard (Heidi Swapp for Advantus), Brads (Queen & Co), Pen (ZIG Opaque).

The design for the LO is a scrap-lift from Scrapbook Creations (or was it Scrapbooking Memories?). Love at first sight when I saw the LO and I had just the right pictures for it. I added more patterned paper cos my photo was not quite the right size but overall, this is one of my favourite pages. I guess I like them simple.

The photos were taken by my sis-in-law BR who is a great kiddie photographer. She now owns her own D80 so I hope to get more great pics of Ty and Jay from her. Hehe...hint hint!

Tri-fold Shadow Box

2007-05-14T21:25:00.000+08:00

Wow its been ages since I last blogged. Not to say that I've not been scrapping as I have but just have not had time to post anything. So many things have happened in the last couple of weeks and my scrapbooking stash has grown tremendously to the point where all my new supplies are being stored in a cardboard box, underneath my scrapping table and all over Ty's table and stools. I've just about given up on any attempts at organisation and am seriously considering clearing out my shelves by boxing up by idea books and magazines (most of which are still unread).

Anyhow, here's what I've been working on..... my 6x6 tri-fold shadowbox frame which is now sitting in my cubicle as a reminder that there is more to life than work.

Materials:- Textured Cardstock: Bazzil Basics; Patterned Paper: Deja Views; Ribbon: American Crafts; Ink: Cat's Eye Chalk; Brad: Queen & Co; Epoxy Stickers: K & Co; Metal Tab: Making Memories.

Materials:- Textured Cardstock: Bazzil Basics; Patterned Paper and Die-cuts: Deja Views; Ink: Cat's Eye Chalk.

Working with the 6x6 size was quick and easy. Sometimes its nice to get away from 12x12s and just finish a LO fast. Plus 3D popping is fun. I don't normally like to pop things up on a page as I feel they will get squashed once inserted into an album but creating a LO for a shadowbox was liberating.

Materials:- Patterned Paper: Deja Views; Ribbon: American Crafts; Photo Corners: Heidi Swapp for Advantus; Vellum Quote: DCWV; Rub-on: MAMBI.

I love the quote and think its quite apt for the stage that Jay is in right now (at 3 and half months) cos when he's awake, he insists on being carried everywhere and woe befalls the person who leaves him unattended for even a few seconds cos his yells surely does move mountains. Hee.

Quickutz Galore!

2007-04-26T20:23:00.000+08:00

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.

Crop Nite - Mini Drawer Set

2007-04-20T22:30:00.000+08:00

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.....

H's farewell party and gift

2007-04-12T11:29:00.000+08:00

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!!

Maya Angelou

2007-04-06T23:35:00.000+08:00

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

Mini Accordion Album - Part 2

2007-04-03T21:43:00.000+08:00

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.

Check out Laine's Papeterie online!

2007-04-01T23:37:00.000+08:00

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!

15% Storewide Sale at Scrapping Gals

2007-03-28T11:18:00.000+08:00

There is an on-going storewide sale of 15% at Scrapping Gals which ends on the 31st March 2007. That's 15% off everything in the online store plus there is also a special Jolee's Boutique offer of buy 10 and get 1 free. Think I'll get me some Quickutz shapes. Hee.

If anyone wants to place an order with Scrapping Gals, let them know to send your order with Adeline's box (which leaves the 1st week of April) and what they will do is take off the shipping cost for your order so you will not be charged for shipping. When your order comes in, I'll give you a call to arrange a pick up of your order. Orders can be sent to Kuala Belait or Seria too if you live there since there is a SG Consultant there and they send boxes there too.

Mini Accordion Album

2007-03-28T10:45:00.000+08:00

Last Wednesday 21st March, I attended the Mini Accordion Album class at Shabby Chic and had a nice time out away from home and the kids for awhile. The class didn't take long and my accordion album was finished in no time at all. This was my first class at making an album and hopefully it won't be my last...hint hint...star book anyone? :-)

The pages of the album was made from cutting a 12x12 piece of patterned paper into 2 strips and then sticking them together at its ends. The folds for the pages were made by scoring with a bone folder. Continuous Glue Lines adhesive (available at Shabby) was used to put the whole album together. The pages of the album was made from embossed paper and is perfect for a children album.

The covers for the album was made by using 2 pieces of 6x6 chipboard and covered with a different patterned paper. Shabby told me that the chipboard can be bought from Bismi or Active Art.

Below is the front of the finished album with the pages opened.

Ribbon (American Crafts) was stuck on the back cover of the album and the back page was then stuck over the ribbon so the album can be tied close using the ribbon. All materials were provided by Shabby including the pre-cut chipboard covers which made assembly of the album really fast and easy. Plus we could choose a coloured cardstock for matting our photos. I chose red but have yet to put my photos in. So watch this space for photos of the fully completed work. Hehe.

A big shout out to Shabby for letting me do the class on my own cos I could not find anyone else to go with me on a Weds afternoon and the minimum for the class was 2 persons.

Mad Dinosaur Weekend

2007-03-13T18:10:00.000+08:00

Ty had a long dinosaur weekend last week. It started with Jurassic Park:The Lost World on Friday night. He was fascinated with the dinosaurs as we've been reading about dinosaurs recently. He could not get enough of the T-Rex, Brachiosaurs, Triceratops and Raptors. On Saturday afternoon, he watched the repeated show and after it finished, he kept asking for "the dinosaurs". Then on Sunday night, Jurassic Park (the first instalment) was shown and wow did he love it.

After what was probably a dino sensory overload, it was still not enough. When my mom told him that he should eat more so that he can grow up to big and tall like his Papa, he said, "No, I want to grow up big like T-Rex". Oooeer...I think that could be a little too big for my liking but maybe its ok so long as his teeth don't grow to be as sharp. Hee.

Then yesterday, as we were getting ready to go to school he started telling my mom that the dinosaurs will eat Nana (my mom), Yeh-yeh (my dad), Ah Ku (my brother) and Aunty Lee (my mom's maid). So then my mom asks what about him and mummy (that's me) and he said, "Me will fight the dinosaurs like this". And he starts waving around a....bicycle pump! Oh yes...the most effective weapon against big scary dinos. Ty my saviour! Hahaha...what a scrapbook moment is what I say!

Chipboard Flourishes!

2007-03-11T22:35:00.000+08:00

Confinement for me ended on the 24th February 2006 but I've hardly been anywhere, being stuck at home with an infant, a toddler and no maid. But really, going out with both boys on my own just doesn't appeal to me right now.

But on Wednesday night, news of Shabby Chic's new chipboards arrival was posted on their blog and all of a sudden I really needed contact lens solution from Standard Optic at The Mall...hey The Mall...isn't that where Shabby Chic is...hehehe. Made a mad dash there on Thursday afternoon with only a window of an hour cos my mom, who was babysitting, had an appointment. And look at what I bought...not a lot lah. Don't worry Hubby dearest...really not alot.

But yeeeaaa I finally got my hands on the Fancy Pants Biggest Board Chipboard Flourishes. I've always admired how Ruey uses flourishes and swirls on her LOs. They look so great. I got myself two Chatterbox mini albums for brag books. Can't wait to get started on them when I get back home on Tuesday.

Crop Nite at Shabby Chic

2007-03-08T21:08:00.000+08:00

Shabby Chic had its first Crop Nite on Friday 2nd March and I think its safe to say that all had a great time! It ran from 6pm till 9pm and to be honest I didn't get much done. Was really busy chatting and being a general busybody into what everyone else was doing plus this was my first visit to Shabby since I got my 'get out of confinement' card last week and it was pure joy for me to be able to browse around the shop. Hee.

Team Harris below (see Black Diamonds for more) was really efficient and they finished a double LO properly within the given time.

Jazzscraps and I trying to focus on our respective projects...I think she managed to plan her LO at least. I only managed to cover an 8" chipboard letter H with pattern paper. I've got the big chipboard letters to spell 'HOME' and the instructions were to stick the patterned paper on the chipboard first and then cut off the excess with a craft knife. It was tough going tho cos I tended to slice up my chipboard edges instead. Jazzscraps then advised me to trace the outline of the letter on the paper with a pencil and then trim. Much easier and neater. I didn't even manage to put any embellishments on my letter. Hee. Luckily The Hubby didn't really ask what I had done at crop nite. I figure I can do another letter at the next crop nite. Haha.

What was the best part of the night...probably the shopping. Woohoo!!

Thanks Shabby Chic for the wonderful time!!

Tag You're It

2007-02-28T15:25:00.000+08:00

I woke up on Tuesday and went thru the list of blogs that I regularly visit and saw that bling bling Black Diamonds (who does really great digital scrapping) got tagged. It was not an easy tag...I mean 6 weird things about yourself...wah that's hard! Then you gotta tag 6 other people. So there I was happily reading Black Diamonds' tag and making a mental note never to stand too close to her while she's drinking beer. At the end she tagged 6 people and strangely enough I saw my name. Now there are lots of other people out there with the same name as I, so being curious and wondering who this other person is, I clicked on the name and my blog page came up. HUH??!! Double check lagi and omigawd, she's tagged me. Alamak...6 weird things about myself...gosh...this is hard.

The rules are:

"Those who get tagged must post 6 weird things about themselves in their blog and state the rules clearly. At the end of the post, you must choose 6 other people to tag"

So here goes:-

If I catch sight of a mosquito in a room, I will automatically start itching all over even tho I've not been bitten and won't be able to relax until the dreaded blood-sucker is squashed dead;
My pillow is sacrosanct! No one is allowed to use it...yes not even The Hubby cos he has really oily skin and Ty is yelled at and shoved off each time he puts his feet on it;
I'm very very and I mean very fussy with my bath towel. One side is to be used specifically to dry my hair and upper body while the other side must only be used to dry the lower half and God help anyone who messes with my towel (The Hubby and Ty included);
When I buy toiletries, I buy in bulk to "keep stock". My bathroom is full of stuff like shower gels, face scrubs, body scrubs, shampoo. I do use them but once I get to the last bottle, it is always saved for a rainy day and ends up not ever getting used...sayang bah and so the collection grows;
I like buying snacks, crisps and biscuits but never eat them. They get stacked up in a basket beside the tv until its long past their expiry date and then get chucked out by my really annoyed Hubby;
I never open my mail. All my personal mail still goes to my parents house and my mom passes them on to me regularly. When I get home, they just get tossed into whichever pile is convenient until its spring cleaning time. And yes, this again annoys the hell out of The Hubby.

So there, 6 weird things about myself. Actually, I don't consider them that weird but The Hubby seems to think so. He is the one that listed No. 3-6 for me cos I really couldn't think of anything.

Ok so now I tag Jazzscraps, Sleepless, Scrappaway, Ruey, Pandachu and Mr. Pablo. Get to it guys! :-)

Rubber Stamping 101

2007-02-23T16:25:00.000+08:00

Now I have to admit, I do not make a lot of projects with stamps and inks. I use my small collection of rubber stamps and ink pads sporadically. More often than not, my most active stamping period is the run up to christmas when I start to frantically hunt for and wrap prezzies while simultaneously making gift tags.

I like buying tools that can be used over and over again and rubber stamps are one of them. Unfortunately, I have found that rubber stamps can also be quite costly especially alphabet stamp sets. In the past, stamps are mounted on wood but nowadays you can get stamps mounted on clear acrylic, which makes the placement of the stamps so much more easier, or foam stamps mounted on foam pieces. I personally like Hero Arts for wood mounted stamps, Autumn Leaves for clear stamps which have to be mounted on acrylic blocks and Making Memories for foam stamps. You can get Hero Arts stamps from Creative Hands in Takashimaya, Singapore and Paper Arts in Hong Kong. Autumn Leaves clear stamps can be obtained online from Pictures 2 Pages in Singapore.

INKS

There are a variety of ink pads that are available and each of them allows you to create different effects/looks with the just one rubber stamp.

Dye Inks

I have several of the kaleidacolor ink pads as seen above (by Tsukineko). Got them from Creative Hands in Singapore. Each pad has 5 different individual colour pads mounted on a slider. With a simple push of the slider, the individual pads join together to make one large multi-coloured pad. Because dye ink is pretty fluid, it bleeds easily and the ink pad must be stored with the individual pads separated to avoid a mixing of the colours. I use this pads for making invitation cards and gift tags.

Dye based ink pads dry quickly and is not suitable for embossing work. They should also be stored upside down to allow the ink to move to the face of the ink pad.

Pigment Inks

Pigment ink pads are slow drying and good for embossing. The above Color It ink pad by Ranger Industries was my first ink pad ever. I bought silver and black from Inksquisite, the sister shop of Stamp It in Perth, Australia. I was recommended this particular pad as I wanted to to embossing for my church wedding invites. The Hubby and I made our own invites and bought all our supplies from Inksquisite. As first time embossers, the shop lady advised us to get a coloured pad as opposed to a clear embossing ink pad so that it would be easier for us to see the design we were embossing.

Pigment inks are rather thick and viscous and therefore not suitable for use on glossy paper. I didn't even dare to use it on vellum paper. Tsukineko makes all sorts of pigment ink pads with different uses.

Above is the Versamark Watermark ink pad. It is clear and when you stamp your image on dark coloured cardstock, it creates a watermark effect. You can also use it to create a resist image on paper, then dye or ink the paper. The dye or ink won't be absorbed into your stamped image making it stand out.

Opalite is another pigment ink pad which gives off a reflective effect. I have one Opalite pad but have not used it yet. Hehe.

The one type of ink pad that I do use quite often are the Versacolor and Versamagic pads. The Versacolor pads are the Tsukineko equivalent of Ranger's Color It pads and they look great when used on any color cardstock. Versamagic pads are a chalk pigment ink and it creates a chalky look without any of the chalky residue. I find that these pads don't work too well on dark cardstock though.

Solvent Inks

Solvent inks are permanent ink pads that can be stamped on anything from glass, wood, metal and leather. Refer to previous post 'Like Father Like Son' for more on this.

Distress Inks

Ranger Industries produce a great brand of distressing inks by Tim Holtz. I love these ink pads as they are fabulous for inking the edges of your paper. I have about 10 of this range in different colours. Other brands like Making Memories also make distressing ink.

Embossing

This is a fun way to play with stamping as it gives your stamped image a raised and embossed look. You need to use pigment inks to stamp your image or a clear embossing ink pad, then pour embossing powder (see below) over your stamped image and heat with a heat tool.

You can also get tinted Embossing ink pads so that it is easier for you to see your image when you pour the embossing powder.

If you don't own a heat tool, no worries. Heat your image over a toaster (the sort that pops up) or put it near an iron. The heat from the toaster and iron will melt the embossing powder and give you the embossed image. When the Hubby and I did our wedding invites, we used a toaster cos the heat tool was not within our budget at that time. :-) What you must NOT use is a hair dryer as it blows out a lot more air that is not hot enough to melt the powder. You're likely to blow away your embossing powder. Hee.

You can get embossing powder in all sorts of colours as well as clear ones. Usual embossing powder is made up of tiny grains that looks rather like fine salt. Then you get Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel ("UTEE") which is about the same thing except the grains look like rough salt. UTEE gives a thicker embossing effect and if you layer enough UTEE over an image, you can 'crack' the UTEE to give the image a crackle effect.

Cleaning your stamps

After using your rubber stamps, it is best to clean them to avoid a build up of ink. This is also to avoid a bleeding of colour when you use them on other ink pads. I use the Ranger Industries stamp cleaner (see below) bought in 2003 from Inksquisite. A bottle goes a long way unless you use your stamps all the time. I reckon my bottle is still about three quarters full.

My stamp cleaner has a sort of rough-ish pad on top. All you do is squeeze the bottle lightly while rubbing the rough pad over your stamp, then just dab your stamp clean with a paper towel or tissue. It is best to also rub the top of your cleaner with tissue to clean it as well.

Now you can get stamp cleaners in a spray bottle which you can just spray on your stamp. Or you can get the scrub-it pad below which goes with the spray cleaner which is scented. Nothing like Chanel No.5 though.

Clear stamps

The popular take on rubber stamping nowadays are unmounted clear acrylic rubber stamps. These are excellent as they are flat and hence easy to store (can use a file folder). And you can get mounting blocks with grid lines (Provo Craft) to help you place your stamps. Autumn Leaves do a great range of clear stamps.

And there it is...hopefully all you need to know to get you started on rubber stamping. Apologies if I have missed anything out and happy stamping!

Note: All photos were downloaded from the relevant websites (was too lazy to take photos of my supplies...much faster this way really and fun since I have been able to upload my photos onto blogger lately).

Like Father Like Son

2007-02-22T11:52:00.000+08:00

Finally a proper father and son LO. I snapped this photo on the day we were doing a family photo shoot at home and was really pleased with this shot. I wanted to list out the similarities (and believe me there are many) between them, from the one single dimple on their right cheeks to how they sleep. What I was not able to say was the fact that both of them can sleep for hours on end!! Seriously!! Haha.

Materials:- Textured Cardstock: Bazill Basics Paper and DCWV; Patterned Paper: Junkitz; Vellum: Hot Off The press ('HOTP'); Die-cut arrow: 3 Bugs In A Rug; Alpha Stickers: American Crafts; Alpha Rub-ons and Dyed Tags: Making Memories; Woven Label 'Papa': Me And My Big Ideas ('MAMBI'); Buttons: Foof-A-La; Rubber Stamp: Hero Arts; Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Faded Jeans) and Staz On by Tsukineko; Pen: ZIG Writer, ZIG Opaque andUniball.

Yeah I finally got to use my stash of buttons by Foof-a-la. Didn't bother to stitch them on with floss or thread. Just stuck them on with glue dots. Even managed to use one of the buttons to record the date the photo was taken (see yellow button). I used a CD writing pen by Uniball because I knew for sure that the ink would not smear on the plastic button. Got this idea of writing on the button itself from my sis-in-law.

I knew I wanted my journaling strips to go on the side but did not want them to hide the pattern paper or stand out too much so I wrote on white vellum. Instead of using brads or eyelets as bullets for my strips, I used a rubber stamp with Staz On ink (see below) as I wasn't sure whether or not normal pigment ink would smear on vellum. Staz On ink pads are brilliant as they are permanent (it is solvent based so it does smell a bit) and smear-free on wood, metal, plastic, glass, etc. If you buy Staz On pads, make sure you also buy the Staz On Cleaner. Normal stamp cleaners will not work. I bought most of my Staz On ink pads and cleaner from Creative Hands (located at the 4th floor of Takashimaya, Singapore). I really wanted the black ink pad but Creative Hands never had any in stock whenever I was there. I finally found the black in Paper Arts (a dedicated rubber stamping shop in Hong Kong - if anyone is going, I have the address of the shop - worth a trip if you are into stamping).

The Junkitz paper I used came with a distressed effect which I love. The dyed tags I used as part of my title was a brand new buy from Shabby Chic (from the MM Fresh Anthology Collection). The idea for the use of the tags came right of the packaging, i.e. the sample page on the back of the packaging the tags came in. Hee. I wrote the 2nd word 'like' by hand. It was my attempt at cursive writing...haha I think fail lah!!

Sadly, after I had finished the layout, I found a pack of MM star buttons in reds and blues which would have been perfect for this LO. Sigh. That's why I try and organize my stash as best I can because 'Out of sight is out of mind' and I often have to spend ages going thru all my stash for embellishments just so I don't miss the rights ones.

4 Precious Little Monkeys

2007-02-21T14:45:00.000+08:00

Ty and 3 of his cousins were all born in the year of the monkey. It was great cos all 3 of my sister--in-laws and I were pregnant together and I picked up a lot of tips and advise from them. They all had baby girls so Ty was the prince (The Hubby said thorn) among the roses.....Haha.

Materials: Textured Cardstock: Bazill Basics Paper and Making Memories; Alpha Chipboard: Basic Grey; Chipboard Word Tile: L'il Davis; Word Sticker: DCWV; Ribbon: American Crafts; Acrylic Paint: Making Memories; Pen: ZIG Opaque; Corner Rounder: Carl.

This LO came together quite easily. I thought of basic LOs by Cathy Zielske, from Simple Scrapbooks (whose LOs are really fabulously simple), that would always have an even border on the edges. A defining clear border makes a simple statement and gives your LO clean edges. It also allows you to use minimal embellishments thus letting you have minimal fuss. As you may have noticed, I didn't use any patterned paper hence less hassle.

The L'il Davis Chipboard Word tile 'Precious' comes in a pack for baby girl which I bought during my second pregnancy...yes I was convinced baby No.2 would be a girl. The word 'little' was cut out from a sticker quote from a DCWV pack for Boys and stuck onto brown cardstock and edged with acrylic paint. I was trying to match the warm colours of the photos by using browns and yellows. Not too sure if that turned out very well though.

Happy Chinese New Year 2007

2007-02-18T15:20:00.000+08:00

Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone!! Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous new year and more importantly...have a good long weekend!!

Ty in his CNY baju. Wah so hard to get him to wear it. He gets really stubborn with wearing new clothes sometimes and after a frustrating half hour of trying to convince him to wear it in the morning, The Hubby and I gave up. It was only later in the day that my eldest sis-in-law managed to convince him (by bribing him with jelly and then threatening to take it away again) to put it on and atu-pun only his jacket. He completely refused to wear the matching pants. Judging by the photo taken by Ab Moz above, Ty wasn't too happy. Hee.

My Two Boys

2007-02-15T10:20:00.000+08:00

I now have three blokes in my life and two of them are just the cutest boys in the world!! I think Ty and Jay look alike but it seems that I'm the only one who thinks so. Hmmmm.

Homemade cards

2007-02-13T18:40:00.000+08:00

I was running through the Photos Folder on the computer and found these pictures I had taken of the 3 cards I made last year. Thought that I might as well post them on my blog too. (Note: I took these photos myself and did not 'clean' them up on Adobe as The Hubby would do...so I guess I'd better put in a disclaimer now to say that he had nothing to do with these photos that i have posted. Hehe...yes I did them all by myself!)

1. Love, honor, cherish

Materials: Textured Cardstock: Bazzil Basics Paper; Rub-ons and Card making template: Making Memories; Chipboard Heart: Heidi Swapp for Advantus.

This was my first attempt at card making. It was a really last minute thing for my Uncle (James and Christina) who were getting married the next day. Slapped on a few rub-ons and the heart and voila...done. I used a vellum phrase for the card sentiment on the inside (sorry no photo) which was inked on the edges with pink acrylic paint. Really basic stuff.

2. To Have and To Hold

Materials: Textured Cardstock: DCWV Card Making Stack; Patterned Paper: Chatterbox; Wedding Die-Cut: Ann Skelly for Lifetime Memories; Rub-on '&': Scrapworks; Alphabet Stamp: Hero Arts; Ink: Versamagic Chalk Ink by Tsukineko.

This was the 2nd wedding card that I made (for Steve and Wei) and again it was rather last minute. Both my Uncle and Wei did a wedding gift registry list with Innerspace and because I bought both wedding couples their gifts from there, I had to make an accompanying card. Usually, The Hubby and I would just give angpows with our names scribbled on the back.

With the 2nd card, I decided to rummage thru my stash of scraps and decided to make a simple border. The wedding die-cut (the book) is from my wedding scrapbook stash. Yes, I'm still in the process of finishing my wedding scrapbook...The Hubby reckons he will be old and with grandkids by the time I finish it. Hee.

For the inside sentiment, I just scribbled an appropriate message as I really had no time to try and do more.

3. Thank You

Materials: Textured Cardstock: DCWV Card Making Stack; Patterned Paper and Brad: Making Memories; Flower: Prima; Circle Punch: EK Success; Ink: Color On Pigment Ink by Ranger; Pen: ZIG Millenium.

This card was done at the behest of my 9 year old nephew who came by the house for chinese tuition one fine Sunday morning and asked me to help him make a Thank You card for his teacher in conjunction with Teacher's Day. I thought it was for his chinese tuition teacher so I rushed the production.

Again, paper and green cardstock are from my scraps stash and once I had decided on how to arrange the elements, it came together pretty quickly. I got my nephew to handwrite the 'Thank You' on the 2 punched circles for a more personal touch. Oh and after the card was completed, said nephew then tells me its actually for his class teacher in school. Grrrr!!

Budding Creativity

2007-02-12T15:18:00.000+08:00

The Dude and AA came over to visit last weekend and they came bearing a gift that is so special, a real treasure find!! A picture frame decorated by Ty himself!! The Dude found it at a Charity Auction held in Sungai Liang and had it not been for the two photos below sent to him by the principal of Ty's playschool, I would have had a hard time believing that Ty decorated the frame himself. I'm so glad that the Dude bid for and got the frame as I had no idea that Ty had done this in school and I love the fact that I now have something that he created at the age of two and a half as a keepsake. Ty decorated the frame on the 17th January 2007.

The finished product.....

When the Dude gave me the frame, some of the sequins and rhinestone flowers had dropped off so I had to glue them back on myself. I used the KI Memories GLOO (see below) which dries to a clear finish to stick the sequins and flowers back on. GLOO is sold specifically for use with KI Memories' acrylic embellishments but has a whole lot of other uses too. It has an easy applicator tip and if bubbles form, just use a toothpick to pop the bubbles before applying the embellishment on your page. I bought the GLOO from Laine's Papeterie in Singapore and I've also found it at Papier in KL (located at The Curve).

The Bump

2007-02-08T19:32:00.000+08:00

The belly page is a more apt title for this page I think. This was a fun LO to do. Inspired by a LO in Simple Scrapbooks ("SS") Nov/Dec 2006 issue and one of my very first black and white picture. Had originally thought to use white cardstock then I stopped and changed to pink bling cardstock. Why?...mainly because I already knew that baby no. 2 would be a boy and figured what other opportunity would I have to use my pink cardstock if not used for myself. This LO had one of my sis-in-laws going..."Pink??!! You??". Hahaha.

Materials: Textured Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Bling; Patterned paper: K & Company; Page Pebbles, Crystal Brad and Paper Edger: Making Memories; Paper Scuffer: Lasting Impressions; Metal Embellishment: American Traditional Designs (l'il stackers); Alpha Stickers: Provo Craft; Rub-ons: Heidi Swapp for Advantus; Pen: ZIG Opaque by Kuretake; Journaling Template: Chatterbox; Ink: Tim Holtz for Ranger Industries.

This photo was taken on Xmas Day 2006 after the annual xmas meal at Karl's. Insisted that the Hubby took the photo specifically. I had never actually recorded the ups and downs of being pregnant and had also never done a LO on anything about me. The LO in SS really struck me. From the photo to the journaling. It was inspiration to record a little something on being pregnant.

The photo edges were distressed the same way as the "2 of a Kind" layout but this time the distress effect was much clearer. The title was created by sticking alpha stickers on clear page pebbles. My only problem was that the square page pebbles were kinda yellowish in colour. Dunno why cos the pack said clear. Hehe maybe yellow with age as I bought them in 2004. The journaling was fun to do. The wavy lines were drawn out using the Chatterbox Journaling Genie template (Funky - see below). I would love to collect all 6 of these templates but have only managed to find only one so far. I have the vanishing ink pen that goes with this template range but have not as yet dared to use the pen on my layouts for fear that the ink won't disappear altogether. I still rely on my handy pencil and eraser.

Dreams come true

2007-02-08T12:21:00.000+08:00

Yes I have been scrapping...before Jay was born but have been having major trouble uploading pictures onto the blog. Seems it is impossible to do from home. The Hubby had to upload the pics from his office. How sad is that eh!! Telbru home internet sucks!!

This is one layout that is not so my favourite. I liked the side bit and had fun doing it (especially the sewing) but I was rather disappointed with my journaling block (couldn't be bothered to re-do though). One good thing is that I managed to use the journalling which I wrote ages ago (finally). It was just waiting for an angelic/decent photo of Ty. This photo was one I dug out from a box I found full of Ty's photos printed for scrapbooking. Hehe forgot all bout these photos. Photo was taken by the Hubby at Meragang Beach (a.k.a Crocodile Beach) in March 2006.

Materials: Textured Cardstock: Bazzil Basics Paper; Patterned Paper: Chatterbox; Word Stickers: Making Memories and K & Company; Mesh: Magic Mesh (Vintage Dottie Ann); Pen: ZIG Millenium and Calligraphy; Embroidery Floss: DMC; Rub-on: Pure Juice Memories Complete.

I used the ZIG Calligraphy pen for my journalling but didn't count on my swollen fingers messing up my already U.G.L.Y handwriting (yes journalling was done during the late stages of pregnancy no.2 - hehe - I could not even put on my wedding ring). I just think the messy journalling block doesn't go with the neatness of the pattern paper blocks. Sigh. Surprisingly, No.1 critic (the Hubby) likes this page. On to bigger and better pages!!!

Arrival of Baby No.2

2007-02-03T16:58:00.000+08:00

Baby No.2 a.k.a Jay arrived on the 25th January 2007 and weighed in at 3.5kg exactly. What a good thing he came a week early.

His arrival meant that I could not feast my eyes on the new arrivals at Shabby Chic...I actually planned to go that day after work. Nevertheless, with the modern technology that we have today and good people (you know who you are!!), I'm glad to say that I have not really missed out on the new goodies even though I have been stuck at home since Jay's birth. 1 week down, 3 more weeks to go.

Watch this space for photos!! (Reason being the Hubby's laptop contracted a virus from my sister's pen drive (Hah Dude, not a virus that would affect the computer tekarang!!) and it corrupted his Windows programme so photos will be uploaded as soon as that is sorted. Kiddo, you better sort your laptop out!!

Shabby Chic Sale...again!!

2007-01-18T23:14:00.000+08:00

I can't believe it!! Yet another sale. Starting tomorrow until the 21st January 2007, there will be 25% - 50% off selected items. That's the problem really...what exactly are "selected items"?? I'm thinking of actually calling them up tomorrow to ask.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't be that fussed and would probably just pop over to have a look at what's up for offer, for want of something to do over the weekend, but being 36 weeks pregnant and expecting the baby to pop out anytime soon kinda puts me off from making an excursion to the Mall. Not only that, when I got the message in the car just now and exclaimed excitedly over it, the disapproving looks from the Hubby almost made me want to melt into the carseat. Hehe.

I'm pretty happy today though cos a shipment came in from Scrapping Gals and I have new books and magazines to read, new acrylic paints (MM glazes and metallics) to play with and a new font (Vixen) for my Quickutz. Hooray!!

Choco Fiend and Shape Punches

2007-01-17T12:06:00.000+08:00

Latest layout that was completed in record time...yes literally done in one night. Even I couldn't believe it. Quick and simple. I had 3 pictures to scrap and it did take me a couple of days of sitting and staring to try and figure out what to do but after deciding to only use 2 pictures (yes, credit for that decision must go to the Hubby) the layout came together pretty quickly.

I gotta admit, Ty did not get as messy as his cousins. Mainly cos we arrived late and he seemed more interested in playing with the satay sticks and bowls of ice water rather than actually eating the chocolate covered fruit. But at least his mouth got a litte dirty. Hee. The fountain was delicious though (hint hint to BF to try that other pack of dark chocolate that I know you have - Haha).

Non-scrapbooking tip to anyone who owns a chocolate fountain: DO NOT pour cold milk to try and dilute the chocolate while it is in the fountain. We managed to clog up the entire thing and had to dig out all the chocolate. The texture of the chocolate dip had also changed and the whole thing went downhill from there. :-(

Materials: Textured Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper; Patterned Paper: DCWV (Retro Stack); Vellum Phrase: DCWV Vellum Quote Stack; Alphabet Stickers: S.E.I; Alphabet Rub-ons: Scrapworks, Alphabet Die-Cut: Quickutz (Ginger Mini Font); Staples: Making Memories; Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Black Soot); Pen: ZIG Millenium (black) and ZIG Opaque Writer (white); Circle Punch: EK Success Whale of a Punch.

This Layout was inspired by an article in the January edition of Creating Keepsakes ("CK") magazine and also a bit of a scraplift. It was an article about not spending too much money on scrapbook supplies and how one can go on a "diet" from the spending. One of the tips was to save on paper by punching shapes out of them instead of using whole blocks of paper. The layout looked neat and simple and the emphasis was on using smaller portions. I had chosen the pattern papers I wanted for the layout but was having difficulty trying to arrange the elements. Punching circles was a fab idea and voila.

I got the circle "Whale of a Punch" (as pictured below) from Laine's Papeterie in Singapore. It costs a bomb ($32.90) but I think it's completely worth it. I also have the square, flower, swirl, and several tag shapes for this range. Oh let's not forget my Mickey Mouse one (no idea why I bought it but thought it'd be good for a Disney layout when I do get around to going).

I like punches and invest a lot of money in them (have a whole box full of big ones plus a plastic drawer full of regular sized ones). The EK Success punches are the best as they have levers which makes punching a breeze. You can get them in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Pictured below are the 1" circle punch (orange one) and a corner adorner puncher (yellow one - for punching designs on the corners of your pages).

I also have the standard McGill punches for squares and circles but they are more fiddly to use as it uses the standard "push button" mechanism that can make it hard to set or measure accurately if you want to save paper (I have to set mine on the table and stand up to push down hard on the buttons).

Marvy Uchida is another brand that does lever style punches and I have two huge ones (circle and tag) bought from Scrapping Gals. Also a great buy. So far, Laine's is the best place for punches as they bring in a pretty good variety of the EK Success brand.

You can get punches for alphabets, all sorts of shapes and in all sorts of sizes. Pictured below is another type of punch for borders by Fiskars. Haha as you can tell, I have not even used mine yet as it remains in its original packaging. The Fiskars border punch is long (about 6") and is really good for 12x12 pages. You can also get mini border punches by Carl but these would be the normal shaped punches with the "push button" mechanism.

Tips for caring for your punches: Periodically punch waxed paper (or grease paper) to keep your punches "oiled" and aluminium foil to keep them "sharp". Remember, punches are a good investment as they can be used over and over again so long as good care is taken of them.

Stickers and Rub-Ons Sale at Shabby Chic

2007-01-14T09:54:00.000+08:00

Whew this post is rather late as the sale started yesterday. Check out the link made by Ranoadidas for more information. It sounds like a pretty good sale (esp for VIP members cos it sounds as if VIP members will get a total of 30% discount).

I didn't manage to go yesterday cos I was really busy the whole day. Blood test in the morning (waited an hour), haircut at 11am (had to chop of the fringe) and clinic at half 1. By the time I finished all my appointments, it had started to pour heavily so i couldn't even go grocery shopping.

Hopefully I will be able to go today as I would like to see if I could pick up any alpha stickers or rub-ons. This will of course depend on whether the Hubby will be willing to drop me off as I'm not keen on looking for parking at the Mall on a sunday. Note to self...be extra nice to him!!

2 of a kind

2007-01-13T16:19:00.001+08:00

I was re-organizing my patterned paper stash by brandnames (a lot easier than organizing by colour) and I realized that I had tons of paper by Basic Grey (love their distressed look) and have never even used a single one. EEPS!! So I decided the next layout must definitely be a Basic Grey layout no matter what.

I do not have many good photos of Ty with my parents or even my parent-in-laws so I was really happy to get these photos of Ty and my Dad on xmas eve.

Materials: Patterned Paper: Basic Grey; Chipboard Number, Acrylic Paint, Paper Edger, Sandpaper, Metal Washer and Metal Phrase Eyelet: Making Memories; Chipboard Alpha and Date Stamp: Heidi Swapp for Advantus; Ribbon: American Crafts; Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Antique Linen) and Cat's Eye Chalk; Paper Scuffer: Lasting Impressions; Circle Cutter: Kuretake; Corner Rounder: Carl.

I must admit, I'm not a big fan of the vintage distressed look. I do own the Making Memories Distress Kit and several Tim Holtz Distressing Ink pads but I rarely use them. In fact, I only bought the Distress Kit for the bone folder and paper edger. I've inked the edges of paper before but not with Tim Holtz ink pads. For this layout, I decided to accentuate the Basic Grey paper by going all out. Distress photos, paper and title!!

It is hard to tell but the photos were roughened with the MM Paper Edger and scuffed further with a paper scuffer. The chipboard was the most time consuming thing to do but also the most fun. As the chipboard were all raw, I painted the first layer white and when dry, I painted them all blue. Then I got to work with the fine sand paper from the MM Distress Kit. I love the effect of sanding but again it is hard to be able to tell from the photo.

The circle paper was a misjudgment on my side. Cut the circle much too small so for space filler, I cut out the circle patterns from the paper. So if you look under the photos, you find a mess of holes. Hehe.

The ribbon was the final touch. I had bought a whole lot of American Crafts ribbon from Shabby Chic but missed this pattern completely. I just could not find the right one from my stash. As luck would have it, I was at the Ritzqun for a wedding dinner on the 30th Dec. Not a good time to go to the Mall for sure. Took us 45mins to get into the area itself. During dinner, told The Hubby I had to pop out to the loo, then did an escape run for the 3rd floor. Hee. That was probably the longest loo visit ever. Hahaha.

Useful scrapbooking terminology

2007-01-07T19:03:00.000+08:00

I did a pretty dry introductory post on what is scrapbooking sometime in November 2006 at my brother-in-law's suggestion. I have since, met online thru my blog, another avid scrapper who did what I thought is a really great post on the terminology used in scrapbooking. Check out Scrap-pa-way's post on What is... for more info on scrapbooking. Cheers Shaz.

Little Braveheart

2007-01-07T18:24:00.000+08:00

The Hubby was a star today. He pulled out the camera and my album and went off to take pictures of some other layouts that I have done. Unfortunately, the camera battery was low. By the time the battery had charged, it was close to noon and the weather had turned a little grey. Nevertheless, he went to his usual spot on the balcony to catch the natural light. And we almost lost a layout!! Wah I think his heart must have stopped when the wind almost blew the page off the balcony. Hahaha and it is a page with a giant button sewn on it. He reckons that without the button, the page would have gone a flying for sure! Whew!!

I really like these photos of Ty. He literally had crayon marks all over his face, on his tongue and teeth and all over his fingers. The shock I had when I saw his face was almost akin to the shock I got when he poured an entire container of Bicarbonate Soda into his mouth and started frothing. This was when he was about a year plus. That was definitely not a time for pictures.

Materials: Textured Cardstock and Button: Bazzill Basics Paper; Patterned Cardstock: Daisy Ds; Alphabet Stickers: Pure Juice for Memories Complete; Ribbon Brads: Making Memories; Woven label: MAMBI; Embroidery Floss: DMC; Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Antique Linen); Font: Couriers New and Comic Sans.

I learnt a new thing with this layout. NEVER EVER PRINT YOUR JOURNALING ON TEXTURED CARDSTOCK WITH A LASER PRINTER. You would have thought that the quality of print would be much better if you use a laser printer. Funnily enough the laser ink does not stay on textured cardstock. Run your fingers over the print and the ink comes off!! Most annoying!! I couldn't be bothered to waste any more cardstock so I just used what I had. My sister-in-law, BY, said that the rubbed off ink adds to the distressed effect but I just worry my journaling will disappear. Eeps!

I also went a little mad in trying to complete this layout. I had everything glued on except the giant button. It was the last thing that needed to be done and I just wanted to complete it! At home, I realized that I did not have any orange thread for the button. I tried clear glue but it showed through. Blaah!! My mother-in-law does lots of quilting so I nicked a roll of orange thread from her but thread is too thin for such a big button. I needed embroidery floss and fast.

The next day at work, all i could think of getting out and buying floss. I knew there was a shop behind the IBB Carpark in town that sells floss for cross-stitching. At noon I walked over but the shop had closed!! Grrrrrr. Called LJ (who does cross-stitching) and asked if Hua Ho Yayasan would sell any and she said I had to go to Hokko in Kiulap or go to her place in Madang as she has loads. She was home for lunch but i thought, nah I'll never make it all the way to Madang then back home to do my layout if i wanted to be back in the office by half 1. It was already 12.15pm when i zoomed off to Kiulap. Lucky for me it was December and school was out so there was no traffic. Got the orange floss, zoomed back home to Subok, had Indomie for lunch and sewed the button on. Voila, my layout was done and I even managed to get back to the office at half 1. Whew! Talk about obsessed. Hee.

Cardstock sale at Shabby Chic

2007-01-06T11:27:00.000+08:00

I got a text last nite telling me that Shabby Chic is starting a sale on all their Bazzill cardstock from today till the 12th January 2007. For a minimum of 10 pieces, one can get 10% off. VIP members get an additional 5% off. Check out www.ranoadidas.com for more details.

I made VIP membership on my birthday last month and that entitled me to 20% off everything in the shop. Needless to say I spent over an hour there and went home with a shopping receipt about 5 feet long. Haha. Luckily the Hubby did not come along.

So its a Saturday today and you will be sure to see me at Shabby Chic after lunch. I've always said it and I'll say it again...you can never have enough cardstock in every colour. I hope the sale also applies to the Bling Cardstock packs. Love them!!

Happy Birthday Part II

2007-01-06T11:00:00.000+08:00

The Hubby took a picture of the birthday card I made for him. So I thought I might as well post it too. It was a really last minute thing, created in the wee hours of the morning while my boys slept. I had bought a metal and leather frame in Takashimaya, Singapore for the Hubby and wanted to create something to put in it. Because the frame I had bought was not a shadow box frame (Shadow Box: a frame that is about 1 1/2" thick and allows space for 3-D embellishments) I was restricted to flat embellishments. Ribbons and stickers. But I could not resist using new epoxy alphabets I had bought from Shabby Chic. By Brenda Walton for K-ology (K&Company) they are really small and I think pretty versatile. A good buy for only $9.90. Just so you know, I went back to Shabby Chic and bought myself a second pack for keeping.

Materials: Textured Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper; Patterned Paper: Karen Foster; Ribbons: American Crafts; Photo Corners: Chatterbox; Sticker: Sticko by EK Success; Epoxy Alphabet: Brenda Walton for K-ology, K&Company; Date Stamp: Heidi Swapp for Advantus; Ink: Kaleidacolor by Tsukineko.

At the Beach

2007-01-05T22:47:00.000+08:00

My first double page 12x12 layout (finished ages ago but had difficulty uploading). My sister-in-law, BR, is a great kids photographer. She always manages to get great photos of the kids and she took these photos of Ty at the beach. She uses film so i had to borrow her negatives and had to print all the pictures. I knew this had to be a double page layout cos I had at least 11 pictures to scrap. Being "kiasu" of course, i developed my favourite photos in 5R (talk about being ambitious) and the rest in 4R plus i could not bear to leave any pics out. So this layout took me ages to plan out in order to get everything to fit nicely and i still had to leave out about 3 pics.

Materials: Textured Cardstock and Mulberry Paper: Bazzill Basics Paper; Photo Corners: 3L, Acrylic Paint, Tagmaker, Rectangle tag, Eyelets and Brads: Making Memories, Ribbon: EK Success Adornments; Chipboard Label Holder: Heidi Swapp for Advantus; License Plate: Sticker Studio; Transparency: Grafix; Tag and Brad: Queen & Co.; Paper Tearing Ruler: Plaid.

The Mulberry paper was supposed to evoke water. I wet the tip of a cotton bud with water and drew wet wavy lines on the mulberry paper. Then I just tore the paper along the wavy lines. The tearing gives the paper a textured effect because of the fibres of the mulberry paper.

For the focal photo that is double matted, I used a paper tearing ruler to create the wavy edges. It was not easy tearing cardstock and i actually tore the edge of the mat. Bazzill Basics Paper unfortunately does not have a white core (for cardstock with a white core, I have only been able to find DCWV Cardstock stacks at Laine's Papeterie in Singapore). So when i tore my cardstock, it did not have the effect i wanted so i used my white acrylic paint (MM-Spotlight) to paint the edges. LOL talk about cheating. Hee.

I think my colour scheme was a little too plain and boring but i really got tired of trying to do this layout that i just didn't bother anymore so long as everything matched. My photo corners were painted blue (to match of course-how exciting). I find that MM's acrylic paints do not stick so well on plastic materials. I was told at Laine's that there are new types of acrylic paints that are much better and would stick on plastic and metal. They were carrying the brand but i've forgotten what the brand name is. I did not pay much attention as i had already invested in most of the MM paint sets and they were selling these new ones individually. Ouch on the wallet so turn away, turn away.

I had fun printing my journalling on transparency. I had been searching high and low for transparencies and now www.scrappinggals.com do sell them by the sheet. The ones i have are for printing with bubble jet printers and they have a sort of textured side on which the ink would stick. Do note that these transparencies are sold for specific types of printers. So i could not run the ones i have thru a laser printer.

NB: Please don't mind the bullets. I seem to have a problem with spacing my paragraphs, i.e the spacebar doesn't seem to work and all my paragraphs were lumped together which makes it hard to read. If anyone knows of how to sort this out i would be really grateful. :-)

Scrap-lifting

2007-01-04T17:32:00.000+08:00

This is a blatant scrap-lift from one of Ruey Chong's layouts that she posted on her blog. I fell in love with her layout (Gappy Grin) the minute I saw it and when I got the photo of Ty and his cousin, Kholil, developed, I thought that the photo would work well with Ruey's design. Thanks very much Ruey for the inspiration.

Scrap-lift: To copy an existing layout design/format but to make it your own with different paper and embellishments.

Materials: Textured Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper Bling; Patterned Paper: Karen Foster and Junkitz; Flower, Alphabet Chipboard and Date Stamp: Heidi Swapp for Advantus; Acrylic Paint, Tagmaker and Circle Tag: Making Memories; Rub-on: DCWV Quote Stack; Ink: Zig Embossing Pen; Circle Cutter: Kuretake.

The bling cardstock and patterned paper were bought from Shabby Chic at the Mall and it was a fabulous feeling to be able to shop for paper with a photo in mind. Most of the time, I am only able to buy whatever catches my fancy as there were no scrapbooking shops available in Brunei not too long ago. Once I got home with my new buys, I got to work immediately.

Because the design for this layout was a scrap-lift, it did not take me very long to complete. The only difficulty I had was finding patterned paper with patterned circles that I could cut out. I did not have much choice on this and consider myself lucky to find the Junkitz paper with some circles printed on. At the end of the day, I still did not have enough cut out circles to achieve the same effect that Ruey got on her layout.

I rather liked the end result of this layout but funnily enough, most of the comments that I got from family was that this layout was "not me". They have attributed this to the fact that it is a scrap-lifted design and that my style of scrapbooking is a more linear and clean lines sort of style. I guess they are right in that sense but hey it was still fun doing this layout so no regrets there.

Happy Birthday!!

2007-01-04T15:16:00.000+08:00

We celebrated the Hubby's birthday in November 2006 but I only completed the layout below in December. This is my first non-Ty 12x12 layout ever (finally eh) and I guess it is fitting that it is of the Hubby. The Hubby's friend has already commented on how come there are no pictures of the Hubby in any of the layouts that have been posted, so to Mr. B5000 here it finally is. :-)

Materials: Textured Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper; Patterned Paper: The Paper Patch; Snaps: Making Memories; Photo Corners: Heidi Swapp for Advantus; "Happy Birthday" laser-cut title: Go West Studios; "The Big 30" die-cut title: Quickutz (Marisa font); Clear Embossing Ink: Ranger; Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel: Suze Weinberg; Rubber stamp: Hero Arts; Watermark Ink: Versamark by Tsukineko.

This was the layout that I mentioned in my previous blog regarding embossing small die-cut letters with Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE). The results for the title "The Big 30" came out really great (painstakingly done and at the expense of the tip of my Quikstik). It was really glossy because I had to re-do the UTEE several times to cover bald spots. The "Happy Birthday" title was less so because I only did one layer of UTEE and the cardstock colour was pale yellow.

This layout also represents my first time at tearing paper. Yes, I think the general reaction would be..."WHAT the 1st time??!!" but hey I am more of a neat freak when it comes to my pages. I think family will be glad to know that I am letting go of this anal nature and that I am beginning to realize that a little imperfection is actually ok. I actually enjoyed tearing paper.

Quick tip for the day: When you tear paper, make sure that you pull the paper directly towards your body and not sideways as you will get a better textured tear that way. (Credit for this tip goes to my cousin LJ who learnt it in her class at Laine's in Singapore - Cheers!).

By the way, do check out LJ's blog at http://jazzscraps.blogspot.com.

My mom saw this layout and was so enticed by the picture I took of the cake (mango flan from the Sheraton Hotel) to the point that she asked me to order the same cake for my own birthday just a week or so ago. I didn't mind as the cake is delicious!!

I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture above but I experimented with watermark stamping on the red paper. I used a rubber stamp and Versamark's Watermark Ink. The effect was rather good actually but I got overzealous in my stamping and the crazy randomness of it did not turn out so well...the messiness of the stamping did not appeal to me at all.

All in all, this is not one of my neatest layouts but at least it got done.

Funny Dates and news

2007-01-04T13:44:00.000+08:00

I just did a post on Preparing for Baby and the date for the post came out as December 11th 2006 even though i published the post like 2 minutes ago. I am not sure if it is because I created the draft post ages ago or if it is my log-in dates that has gone haywire so please bear with me. This is not the first time this has happened to me.

I suppose it is no big deal except that the accuracy of the dates for my blog posts is now gone with the wind. LOL.

Other news today is that i received a really nice comment (my first and only comment so far since I started this blog) from Shaz who is a scrapper from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Thanks Shaz for the plug on your blog, http://scrap-pa-way.blogspot.com. Do check out Shaz's blog for tips and techniques on making your own accordion albums (which I am planning on trying out!!).

Preparing For baby

2006-12-11T22:05:00.000+08:00

Wow, finally I have managed to upload pics of my layouts onto my blog. My Hubby was away for a week and a bit in Dec so i had to wait for him to come back for help uploading. Then when he manged to get around to doing so, the pictures were too small and could hardly be seen. Fresh uploading of pics met with serious internet access issues for me at home, then to the whole Asian region due to the earthquake in Taiwan. But it seems we're back in business and just in time for the new year too. The post below was written ages ago but just never published. Hee.

Materials: Textured Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper; Patterned Paper: DCWV Text Stack; Epoxy Alphabet: S.E.I; Alphabet Rubons: Making Memories and Heidi Swapp for Advantus; "Special" tag: Wild Asparagus; Ribbon: Making Memories; Metal Tag and brads: L'il Stackers by American Traditional Designs; Quilling: Jolee's; Embossing Pen and Opaque Writer (white): ZIG by Kuretake; Clear Embossing Powder: Ranger.

I was reading Simple Scrapbooks (again forgot which issue...sorry - too lazy to trace) and there was an article about scrapping without pictures. Inspired by this article, I dug around in a box in which I had kept memorabilia from Ty's birth. I found pictures of his ultrasound scans, a receipt from Amazon for baby books which i had ordered prior to his birth and the JPMC card in which his scans were given to us. Scrapability for all!! I chose the baby text paper from my DCWV stack. It was green. Not my favourite colour but i figured what better time to use it. Overall, I was pretty pleased with the end result as it was quick to put together but my favourite critic, Hubby, doesn't like the layout at all because of the colour.

I sprayed the Amazon receipt and the JPMC card with Acid-Free spray just in case even though I did not use any photos in the layout. Maybe the spraying will prevent the items from discolouration. The Acid-Free spray is available from www.scrappinggals.com and is pretty expensive as it does say that it is only good for 8 sprays or something (having said that I think I have used my little spray can more than that so....). A little can costs about $40 something.

This was the fastest layout I have put together so far as it was only a matter of arranging the memorabilia on the page. Journalling was very basic and handwritten in a "list" format with white pen on black cardstock and hidden behind the JPMC card.

On hindsight, I should have inked the edges of my patterned paper to give it a more distinctive look since my background cardstock is also green but I was rushing the layout in an attempt to challenge myself to finish in as little time as possible. Hence the incomplete feeling I get everytime I look at the layout. Oh well, lesson learnt. I guess I am not the rush-rush scrapper. LOL.

Crazy Sale News

2006-12-11T15:14:00.000+08:00

Pictures 2 Pages (www.pictures2pages.com) in Singapore has extended its Crazy sale till the 31st December 2006. The same discounts apply, as in 20% off items priced in black and 10% off items priced in red. If you know of anyone going to Singapore now for the holidays, be sure to be extra nice and sweet to them and then get on your knees and beg them to bring your order home for ya cos i think this is a sale not to be missed.

What's more, i've been working on 2 layouts over the weekend (and great news is that I actually FINISHED both!! Hurrah!! - watch this space as they will be posted soon) and for one of them, I had this great idea of embossing my die-cut title with UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) to make it look glossy. Unfortunately, I did not count on the little alphabets flying around as soon as I turned on my Heat Tool. On reflection, after I had spent a half hour longer than anticipated working on the title, i thought that if i had some glitter it would have been far far easier to decorate my title. Would probably stand out more as well and i started dreaming of the new Making Memories Shimmer sets. Then when i checked out Pictures2Pages this morning, the new Glue Dots glitter are in. It's a sign!!! What's even better you ask...my parents will be in Singapore for a short trip this week. So yes, there goes some more of my savings but all in all...for a good cause wouldn't you say. LOL.

Happy shopping all.

The Beginning - oooeer

2006-12-08T22:03:00.000+08:00

This was my very first attempt at a 12x12 page layout. Very simple and basic scrapbooking I think. My efforts at making the little foldout booklet containing more photos did not turn out very well as the ribbon tie is really for show only and does not hold the booklet close AT ALL!! Oops!! I had already stuck the picture on the front of the booklet before realizing the ribbon had to go over ithe photo in order to secure the whole thing. And of course I did not want any ribbon to mar the photo hence the "for-show" ribbon tie. Oh well...a better attempt next time!!!

But aren't the photos sooooo cute!! Ty (in the Tigger outfit) and his cousin, Yu Shiuan (piglet of course) were born only 2 days apart and when they were 6 months old, we brought them to Universal Photo Studios for a studio shoot. Ty had gotten the piglet outfit as a gift from my aunt, Hjh Adina (who meant to give it to my cousin's child Aqilah but did not realize it was a piglet so we lucked out except that it is pink...not that the colour stopped us from letting Ty use it for as long as he could fit in it - metrosexual colour bah). The Tigger outfit is a hand-me-down from I dunno who.

Materials: Textured Cardstock: Bazzill Basic Paper; Patterned Paper: Chatterbox and We R Memory Keepers; Alphabet Stickers: EK Success; Epoxy Tiles Play: Sticko for EK Success; Pen: Zig; Ribbon: Pictures2Pages; Photo Corners: Chatterbox; Alphabet Rubber Stamps: Hero Arts; Ink: Tsukineko; Paper Punch: EK Success Whale of a Punch.

I must admit I am not very good with patterned paper. Love buying them but can't seem to use them properly. The Chatterbox brand of papers are really nice and they come co-ordinated by "rooms" and are double sided. The paper I used above is from the Sun Room collection and it was pretty easy picking for me as i wanted something to match the orange of the Tigger outfit.

My cousin, LJ (who is scrapbook crazy now) just came back from joining a beginner and intermediate class in Singapore at Laine's Papeterie (located on the 3rd Floor of Wheelock Place - same floor as Birkenstock) and she was told that we should choose our patterned paper first and then choose the co-ordinating cardstock. That sure was news for me as i almost always choose my cardstock first to match the photos and then I trawl thru my paper stash for matching paper. When you think about it, it does seem easier to choose patterned paper first. So that is the quick tip for today. :-)

The Importance of Being Sticky

2006-12-05T17:00:00.000+08:00

Without adhesives/glue, scrapbooking would not be possible. Adhesives are really important and I thought it would be worth blogging about the many different types of adhesives there are in the market. Many beginner scrappers do not realize the value of adhesives and how many different types are actually available. You can get both permanent and repositionable adhesives.

When i do a page, I can use as many as 4 different types of adhesives. That's on one single page!! Different elements on your page may require different adhesives to make sure they stay on your page properly. Of course it is perfectly alright to use just one type of adhesive and i would recommend roller tape glue. It looks like correction tape and is really easy to use. Shabby Chic at The Mall sells the Tombow brand for $3.20. I am currently using the Pritt brand as seen below. I use the roller tape glue primarily for sticking my patterned paper onto my pages.

I use photo mounts when sticking my photos on mats on on my page. There's no actual "sticky" reason as to why i use photo mounts for my photos other than i find it is cheap to buy. But I also do think that they hold my photos better. The ones i use are from Australia.
Other types of adhesives that i use are photo corners (for things that i do not want permanently stuck on my page. I have used photo corners as a decorative element too. If i find that i do not have the right colour for my page, all I do is take out my acrylic paints and paint my photo corners the exact colour i want. Photo corners can come in many different types of style and colour. The ones in the photo are basic ones which comes in clear, white, gold, silver and black. Big name manufacturers like Making Memories and Heidi Swapp also make their own stylish ones like woven and metal corners. These do not actually hold the photo but only gives an aesthetic effect.

Glue Dots are another great type of adhesive. Glue Dots describe the adhesive and is also the actual brand name too. They come in a 3 types of sizes (2 of which are shown here). They have also produced Continuous Glue Lines, Pop-Up Dots and Vellum Dots. The box packaging shown here is the old type. New packaging comes in flat plastic packs which are much easier to store. Glue Dots are really sticky so make sure you position your photo or embellishment in the right spot cos there is no turning back without doing some sort of damage to your page at the very least.

The Glue Dots shown above are the Memory Book Dots (medium sized), Mini Dots and Glue Lines.

Vellum glue is also a must have if you like working with Vellum paper which is akin to tracing paper except it is of thicker quality and has a kind of sheen on one side of it. Normal glue will show right through the vellum so it is imperative that the right glue is used. I use Scotch 3M Vellum tape as seen below but my sister-in-law and cousin have both told me that it also does show through their vellum after awhile. I myself have not had a problem with them but the Vellum Dots produced by Glue Dots advertises itself as the only vellum glue in the market that does not show AT ALL!!

If you like using liquid glue, there is also the ZIG 2-Way Liquid Glue made by Kuretake. These come in 3 types of pens. Fine tip, medium tip (which is like a flourescent marker pen) and the super fat tip. Only the first 2 are shown below. The Fine tip glue pen is pretty nifty for small die cuts. They are called 2-Way glue because they can be both permanent and repositionable. Leave it to dry slightly before putting it on your page and it becomes repositionable meaning you can pull off the element easily and stick it elsewhere. Attach the element to your page while the glue is still wet and its becomes permanent.

If you want incredibly super sticky glue then the Terrifically Tacky Tape by Provo Craft is the one for you. I found these in Singapore at www.pictures2pages.com and fell in love with them instantly. They come in 3 width sizes and are completely worth the money you pay. It works like double sided tape and is clear so you could also stick glitter and small beads on them.

If you want to give your element or embellishment a 3-D effect then use Pop-Up Dots, 3D Dots or foam tape. You can get normal Scotch 3M brand of foam tape from anywhere like Hua Ho or Utama Grand but these are not acid or lignen free so i would be careful when using them near your photos. I am using Francheville Foam Tape at the moment but 3D Dots (see below) are more widely available in all scrapbooking shops or online sites. Shabby Chic now sells the Pop-Up Dots (Glue Dots brand).

The last type of adhesive I use is the Xyron Create A Sticker Maker. I absolutely love this!! Xyron produces these sticker makers in all sorts of sizes but i find the 150 model the easiest to carry around. I use it to make my die cut alphabets or pictures into stickers cos sometimes trying to glue little alphabets onto your page can be fiddly. I have also found that using the Xyron for ribbon is fantastic. Just run your ribbon through the Xyron and voila, your ribbon becomes like a sticker which makes it a breeze to stick on your page.

You could also use the basic glue stick which looks like the standard UHU Glue stick. I find that these do not stick as well as other glues but they are really cheap and widely available in Brunei. I have found the AMOS brand selling in Hua Ho and Bismi.

So the next time you go to Shabby Chic or browse through an online scrapping site, check out the adhesives section. And now hopefully you will know which type of glue to get to best suit your scrapping needs!

Layout sizes

2006-12-01T21:54:00.000+08:00

Standard scrapbook pages come in 2 sizes. 12x12 and 8.5x11 (which is slightly smaller than an A4 sheet of paper). Of course you can get many different sized albums these days in sizes like 9x9, 8x8 and 6x6 albums plus many more different sizes. The more affordable and widely available 12x12 albums are from Making Memories and they come in various colours in a linen or faux leather finish.

It is advisable to not layer too much paper and/or cardstock on the edges of your layouts as you may find it difficult to get your pages to fit into your page protector. I have that problem with the Nana & Me layout below. I placed my photo and patterned paper flush on the edge of my cardstock base thereby resulting in thick edges. So now i find it hard to get my page to fit in the plastic page protectors of the album and even more so if i try and fit a second layout on the other side of the page protector.

Colorbok produces albums called the The Perfect Scrapbook Album and Making Memories used to produce the Perfect Fit Albums. There are also other brands that advertise themselves as being the perfect fit for 12x12 pages so i gather the problem i have of trying to fit my thick-ish page into my album is a common occurrence. I have the Colorbok album but have not used it yet so whether or not it is true to its calling card, that i do not know.

This is the Colorbok Perfect Scrapbook Album, called as such as they claim that there is no need to trim your pages to get them to fit nicely.

I am using a Making Memories 12x12 album for Ty's pages (see above - blue linen with label holder). And when i saw the photo of my Mum and Ty holding hands, I immediately knew that the photo had to be enlarged to the maximum. I enlarged the photo to an 8x12 in order to fill the entire length of the page and put my journalling strips on the other side. The 4 little pictures at the bottom were a last minute decision and only because I couldn't decide on a space filler for that spot.

You might notice that the second cardstock strip on the layout is blank. The Hubby blanked it out as it had my parent's address on it. I didn't even know he did it till after I posted this.

Materials: Textured Cardstock: Making Memories and Bazill Basics Paper; Patterned Paper: Junkitz; Twistel and Acrylic Paint: Making Memories; Chipboard Alphabet: Heidi Swapp for Advantus; Photo Corners: Chatterbox; Tag and Brad: Queen & Co.; Alphabet Rubber Stamps: Hero Arts; Pigment Ink: Ranger.

Uh Oh Here Comes Trouble

2006-11-30T16:40:00.000+08:00

Hurrah more photos of my layouts. Hubby finally had time to take pictures of my layouts and i think the photo of this one has come out much better than the first one.
This placement of the paper and photo was inspired from a layout i saw in Simple Scrapbooks magazine (forgot what issue). This is one of my favourite layouts.

Materials: Textured cardstock: Bazzil Basics Paper; Patterned Paper, Stitched Tag: Chatterbox; Alphabet Chipboard: Heidi Swapp; Acrylic Paint, Word Tile and Alphabet Stickers: Making Memories.

If you can even read my really bad handwriting...congratulations!! Personally i detest my handwriting and i've even bought a book by Heidi Swapp called Love Your Own Handwriting which has exercises in it. I have not had a chance to go through the book properly yet (as i have tons of scrapbook idea books and magazines to read) but one of the things that Heidi Swapp strongly advocates is the use of your own handwriting in your pages, regardless of how bad it is. One day, when i'm long gone, perhaps my great grand children will look at this page and yes they will probably say "Damn what ugly handwriting great grandma had" but at least they will know what my handwriting looks like. Hee.

The original journalling that i had drafted for this picture was about my hopes and dreams for Ty and how i hoped that he would follow his own personal dreams but my brother-in-law said that it did not match the cheekiness of Ty's photo. And how right he was!! Cheers JW. (By the way, i still have not found a photo to match my original journalling...meaning to say there are no angelic photos of Ty!! LOL)

The MM Alphabet Stickers were stuck on white cardstock and painstakingly cut out by hand with my trusty Precision Tip Cutter Bee Scissors in order to make them stand out more. I was lucky enough to find acrylic paint (Poppy) for my raw chipboard letter 't' that perfectly matched the cardstock.

Tip: The front of the page looks normal but turn the layout around and you'll find gaping holes behind the picture and patterned paper. I cut them out as no one looks at the backs of the layouts anyway and I get to keep the cutouts as scraps for diecutting, punches or even as mats for other photos.

NB: The photo of Ty was taken by Hubby in March 2006 with my brother's trusty Canon 10D.

Family

2006-11-26T18:13:00.000+08:00

My family held its 13th Annual Golf Tournament today at the RBGCC. The golfers played in the morning and the rest of the family met up for the luncheon which was at Grandstand 3 (a really great venue cos it is air-conditioned and large enough that we weren't all squashed together). It is always an occassion for fun and laughter as the family is quite extended and we do not really meet each other on a regular basis.

More often than not, i would have to ask who the little kids are and what are their names. A sign that i'm getting old as i can never remember all the names of my second cousins. But what i cherish most on these occassions are the photo opportunities that we have for the older members of the family. The missing faces of many loved ones today is a stark reminder for me to treasure the time we have left with so many of the family and more so, how important it is for me to try and scrap the photos of loved ones and to tell their story or the stories of events like today which we all enjoy and look forward to each year.

The scrap pages of such loved ones can be passed down to the younger members of the family who i am sure will treasure the photos and memories as well as the chance to get to know their elders albeit from created pages. I just hope that i am able to do this for my family and to do it well.

This is a picture of my grandfather at the 13th Annual Chua Trophy held on the 26th November 2006 and the inspiration for my blog today. The event was hosted by the family of Chua Kong Ann this year and the prizes for the tournament and lucky draw were fabulous (i-pod shuffle, home entertainment system, 2 mobile phones, digital camera, polaroid cameras, movie tickets, meal vouchers and more). Grand winner of the trophy this year was Uncle Adenan who has won it once before. 2nd place went to Uncle Brahim who has won the trophy twice before. 3rd place went to Sa-Chek (3rd uncle). My dad has also won the trophy twice and Tua-peh (eldest uncle) has won it once. So 7 wins out of 13 for my immediate family is a pretty good record i think and one that we are all so proud of!!

What is Scrapbooking?

2006-11-24T09:03:00.000+08:00

My hubby is away on business at the moment so i'm unable to upload any more pictures of my layouts. So i thought i should finally write something about what scrapbooking is about.

In brief, scrapbooking is basically an extension of a photo album. Its more personalized and can be an outlet for your creative side. But to be really honest, i haven't got a creative bone in me at all. My layouts may not be as stunning as others and i may not be as quick in designing a layout but they are an extension of me and i'm proud of them all the same. So i do not believe that you have to be arty to do scrapbooking. A person just has to develop their own style.

The key thing about scrapbooking is that you need to make sure that you use acid and lignin free products. From your glue to your papers and embellishments. If you look back at your childhood photos, some of you may find them yellow with age and maybe even spotty discolourations. Apparently, if we had kept those old childhood photos in acid and lignin free albums, such discolourations would not have occured. The idea of scrapbooking with such products is that your photos will now last for generations to come and if you add meaningful journalling and captions, your kids, grandkids and great grandkids will be able to enjoy your albums as family heirlooms even after you are long gone.

Glue is another important factor for me personally. When i was in secondary school, the teachers used to give us handout notes which we were supposed to stick into out notebooks. I used double sided tape sometimes instead of the standard UHU stick glue and i remembered that after about a year or so, i could actually see the outline of the double sided tape thru the note paper. The paper would also turn yellow rather quickly. So if you were to stick your photos into your album with such double sided tape, i think you'll find that over the many years to come, your photos would eventually form the same discolourations.

When i started scrapbooking, i used cardstock and paper bought from stationery stores in Brunei that were not specifically acid and lignin free. Mainly because i had no choice available to me at that time. But i made very sure that all my glue (bought from Australia where i was first introduced to scrapbooking) were acid free.

For scrapping, one will need tools for paper crafting. If you're just starting out and are not sure about whether the hobby is for you, all you will need are a pair of good scissors, a craft knife, a ruler, a paper cutter (optional if you are good with a knife, ruler and a cutting mat), glue and a pen. I am really anal when it comes to my tools so i have different scissors for paper, glue and cardstock. I have different rulers for cutting, measuring and tearing. There is no need to invest in a tool kit unless you are really serious about the craft and if you are, then i would recommend the Making Memories Deluxe Tool Kit (see below) which will cater to your every need.

Once you have the tools, go develop your photos. Get some paper, cardstock and an album to keep your pages in and off you go.

Layouts

2006-11-19T23:37:00.000+08:00

When I started this blog, I just thought to make it an informative blog about scrapbooking in Brunei and the "trials and tribulations" that we Bruneian scrappers have to go thru in order to get supplies (well ok not so much of tribulations really...hee). But my brother mentioned to me that my blog was pretty un-interesting (in his words...boring...thanks Dude) as it contains no pictures at all.

Then on Saturday, at the grand opening of Shabby Chic, some friends of mine directed me to a blogspot called http://www.blessed2bestressed.blogspot.com/ and i was blown away. My orignal idea was to remain anonymous but now i realized that a scrapbooking blog should not be so and that i could do so much more with the blog. It was great fun to read Ruey's blog and Ruey, if you do come to Brunei as my friends have said you might, I would so love to meet you.

So now i have decided to change the objective of my blog. I'll still try and keep it as informative as possible but I will also try and upload my layouts (tho few they may be and so amateur-ish). I figure it will also be a good way for me to note down the materials used on the layouts and the story behind the layouts themselves. Who knows, i may use the same for a future layout on my scrapbooking.

Now the only problem i have is that i do not own a scanner at home. Attached below is a trial run done by taking a digital photo of my layout "Simply Amazing". My brilliant hubby did it for me last night and i so love him for it!! Just so you all know, i'm simply hopeless with IT stuff.

And another big shout out to my hubby whose digital layouts have been uploaded onto the blog's main page. Hurrah!!

Materials: Textured Cardstock: Bazzil Basics Paper; Patterned paper: Flair Designs; Alphabet stickers, foam stamps and acrylic paint: Making Memories; Epoxy stickers: Plaid; Corner rounder punch.

This was a fun layout to do. The mosaic tile paper actually came in a 12x12 sheet (bought from Scrapping Gals). It didn't seem to work right by puting the entire paper on the layout so i decided to cut out the individual tiles (super easy with EK Sucess's Cutter Bee Scissors). I was going to hide the journaling about how much Ty loves bathtime, especially bubble baths, with a 'pull-out' behind the focal photo but my hubby liked it clean and simple as it was. So this was a rare layout for Ty with no journalling or captions at all. Photos were taken in March 2006 (we took tons of photos during that month cos we borrowed my brother's Canon 10D with a 1GB memory card and went absolutely crazy!! It also turns out that my hubby is a pretty good photographer).

So now my blog site looks completely different from when it first started. We have had to change the colours of the site in order to accentuate the layouts better. I think it's looking great and i can't wait to upload more stuff onto it.

"Shabby Chic" in Brunei

2006-11-19T15:41:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, a close friend virtually made my day with a simple phonecall. She rang me to tell me that a scrapbook shop called Shabby Chic (what a great name) had opened in the Gadong Mall. It was advertised in the BB and there was even an article on it in the back pages.

Wowee!! I couldn't contain my excitement and drove straight there after lunch. And there it was, on the 3rd floor right next to Solitude the bookshop. It turns out that the owner, Irene, is the sister of a friend of mine. The shop has a good variety of supplies from essential tools, albums, patterned paper, cardstock and embellishments such as brads, eyelets, stickers, rub-ons etc in all the big brand names from USA (Making Memories, S.E.I, Bazzil Basics, Wild Asparagus and Chatterbox to name but a few). I'm pretty well stocked up in terms of tools and supplies but even then, it was fun to browse around and examine stuff personally rather than online thru a computer screen. It was also great fun to chat with Irene about scrapping.

There was also a tool table for people to try out the various scrapping tools available. Irene has the Sizzix and Sidekick die-cutting machine for customers to try. I have never seen the Sizzix machine close up and it was fun trying it out finally. Personally, it is a little bulky but then you have the Sidekick for portability. The dies are also pretty bulky but you can pretty much arrange your paper or cardstock on the template that you want and run it thru the machine. So it helps in not wasting any cardstock or paper. I have already invested in the Quickutz so am not looking at acquiring the Sizzix or Sidekick at all but it is nice to finally try it out.

My brother-in-law pointed out to me just afer i started this blog that perhaps i ought to write something about what scrapbooking is all about as a starter. A really good point but i think i will leave that for another post. At this moment in time, if any of you would like to know what scrapbooking is all about, make a stop at Shabby Chic. Irene will be able to show you firsthand what this is all about.

Scrapping magazines

2006-11-16T23:09:00.000+08:00

The best place in Brunei where you can buy scrapbook magazines is in Booker International in Gadong. Without fail every month, they will have a couple of copies of Creating Keepsakes, Scrapbooking and Beyond and other British publications (sometimes there have Australian magazines too). Once they even had copies of Memory Makers. The unfortunate thing about Booker's magazine supply is that, as i was told by their staff, they do not have a say on which magazines they bring in. The selection is sent from Singapore with no input from Booker's staff.

I would buy Creating Keepsakes and Memory Makers whenever i come across them. But i've stopped buying Scrapbooking and Beyond as it does not quite fit my style of scrapbooking. The British publications are also not quite up to par but they often have freebies which makes them a tempting choice. Scrapbooks etc. is a pretty good magazine but hard to find. It is a really good buy as it is the only publication that costs less than $10. When i do by chance visit Paul and Elizabeth's Bookshop in Yayasan, i have found it on sale there but that's only 1 in maybe 5 visits if i'm really lucky.

What i do now is subscribe for my regular magazines thru Scrapping Gals. I only get 3 publications which are Creating Keepsakes, Paperkuts and my favourite, Simple Scrapbooks.

So check Booker out if you're interested in getting the magazines. Be warned though, they sell out pretty fast so be quick.

Internet Sales

2006-11-16T07:26:00.000+08:00

I'm not sure what the season is in Singapore but my favourite scrapbook online site, www.pictures2pages.com is having a sale on all items. And its pretty fabulous too. 20% off all normal priced items and an additional 10% off any sale items.

Another pretty good site, www.scrapbookingcove.com is also having a sale on. I've never really looked into scrapbooking cove until recently and was pleased that i did as i found that it had some supplies which i had been looking for for quite sometime now. Things like twill tape and Making Memories Antique Brads.

The only thing about ordering from these sites is that they are based in Singapore and i'm living in Brunei. There aren't any scrapbooking shops in Brunei and a Bruneian scrapper's only hopes are online orders. I've taken to getting friends and family to bring my orders home for me if anyone visits Singapore as shipping costs can be quite expensive.

Another good site to order from is www.scrappinggals.com of which i am a consultant for. The best thing about this site is that if we have enough orders and lump them all together, the shipping costs are free.

If you are interested in starting scrapbooking, do check these sites out. The Singapore sales are till the end of the month only.

Card making

2006-11-15T23:57:00.000+08:00

My son had a minor operation on Monday and i took 3 days off work to stay home and take care of him. While he slept most of the day there wasn't much to do and since we recently connected to e-speed at home, i spent most of that time on the net.

I finally had the time to go back to My Place (http://www.scrapbook.com/profiles/60237.html ) at www.scrapbook.com and explored it carefully. Did one other blog there (as this one had was not formed till later in the day) and uploaded the pictures i had taken of the cards i had made (yes...all 3 of them).

At the time of the making of the cards, i was really proud of the results but now when i look back at the photos of them, i'm beginning to have second thoughts. They look so simple...too simple actually and too plain. Now don't get me wrong, i am still proud that i actually made cards to give away (2 weddings and 1 thank you) and i did have a real good time doing them so no regrets there. The only drawback about card making is that you don't get to keep them in an album. You give them away and never see them again. So sometimes it's really hard to take out those precious (and usually expensive) scrapbook supplies to be used.

I try now to use my scraps for making such cards so as not to waste. And regardless of the fact that card making will eat into my supplies, i will continue to make them and will continue to give them away.