Card and LOs

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

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

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

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.

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

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......

1. SB item bought? A Fiskars paper trimmer from Inksquisite, Oz
2. layout? Ty @ 6mths in a Tigger suit
3. concert? Jewel
4. handphone? A Nokia brick (quite literally)
5. boyfriend's name? Kevin
6. job? A data recorder (don't ask)
7. vacation as an adult? Inter-railing through Spain
8. pet? Shared a puppy called Bobby with my brother
9. designer handbag? Now would that be a fake or an original one? LOL
10. 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?

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...

...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

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!!

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR TO ALL MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

A very belated post

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

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!!

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

FOR SALE!!

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...

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.