I used to ask my colleague when is Thanksgiving. I mean we don’t really celebrate it here, but I got Thanksgiving greetings from online friends especially in scrapbook forums. Only after asking my colleague who had studied in U.S before, then only I realize when and how the American celebrate it. But I can do with thanksgiving everyday. I’m sure there are lots of things for me to give thanks about in my life.
Namely my family, my work, my friends and my life. Ya.. my life. That’s why I’m happy to do scrapbook and like Ali Edwards said, I am also in love with scrapbook.
How I would love to be able to buy my scrapbook things with discount. Especially since I’m always lacking of PP or cardstock, and embellishments, and tags, and stamps.. wow.. basically everything! But of course normally all the online sites would have their certain hours or time to give discounts. There is this site that I found useful especially if you want to buy gifts for Christmas. I know all my friends especially those in American and United Kingdom would love to know about this. They have this thanksgiving deals available online and showing who will give the discount a bit earlier, that is on the day after thanksgiving. So all of us would have enough time to prepare for Christmas gifts.
Those offering this opportunity includes Amazon, WalMart, Target, Toys”r”us and many more. I would do with all these sites especially Amazon since I’ve tried out their site just recently and am satisfied with their service. And yes! Both WalMart and Target do sell scrapbook things! Yay! I’ll be looking forward to this.
New books and Snapshots LO
Yay! I’ve just got my books by Ali Edwards and “We dare you” ordered through Amazon.com. Which is a day earlier per estimation from Amazon. I’m so happy and just can’t wait to read them page by page.
I know some of you might have read these two books several times already. Well, I AM really living in a far away land of the U.S, you know?
A few flip of the books and buoy, I love the those LO in the two books. It is now even better for myself is that I don’t need to rely on the Internet to view other’s LO, and I’ve got these two that will show me just enough pages to be inspired.
This round, I wanted to share about the LO that I just did last night on my 2nd DS. It is in mosaic styles combined with pattern patter. I just had too many of those not so perfect photos that I don’t want to just keep it away in the old slip in album. But they are too many to be included in a page which doesn’t leave me any space to journal or simply be more creative. So I’ve spread them out into 2 pages and interval with PP and tags.
I must say the pages doesn’t seems to be well coordinated both for the color and pattern, anyway, I’ve had fun doing it 😀
In face, my parents were wondering if I’ll be working today ‘cos I stay up late to finished these two LO. (Hehe.. sorry mom and dad for getting you all worried. )
I wanted to show how I used the swirl palette to make the pattern on the 1st page on the bottom right. Just a way to record down the process. Many scrapbookers would know how to do these simple steps:
1. Position the swirl template to where you want it to be.
2. Then use a hard brush dotted with ink
and simply start dotting it over the pattern,
make sure your hands are sturdy and don’t move the template.
3. Carefully remove the template.
In my case, I simple remove it cos I didn’t use a lot of ink on it.
4. Finally then only put the brad on,
to make up the “o” of “snapshots”.
to make up the “o” of “snapshots”.
I’ve actually used many different types of brads on this LO. I just love those little footprints, dragon fly, stars, heart shape and mini round brads.
PP and ribbons: American craft, HOTP; Cardstock: SEI; Brads: HOTP, MM; Letter stickers and tags: Basic Grey.
View from my window
A friend has been asking me about posting photos that I’ve taken during my last trip to China, especially the look from my window. So here goes..
It was taken at end of last year during sun set.
The building on the right, which is an apartment with shoplot downstairs, only took a year to complete and people already moved in to do business and living there! Compare to those that we have here.. well.. it seems to take ages to complete.
As seen on the photos, the air quality is not that good. It is not foggy, it is just haze.. meaning air pollution. Further down to the front is where Hong Kong suppose to be but can’t see the island from these photos.
The place is actually very dusty so sometimes I still need to mop the floor even after the cleaning lady had already done so. Normally I would keep the windows closed, one is to keep away the dust and another is to keep my children from falling out of it.
Well.. being there is not easy as I have to keep watch them all the time. What more in a foreign country with 1 child policy. When we walk on the street, people will start staring at us especially when seeing me with two kids, some more they are boys. As we all know some Chinese prefer to have boys instead of girls, sad but still true.
Blue tone LO
Yay! After I’ve got my journal printed and adhere to one of my wedding pages. I went searching for photos to scrap and found two that I thought I can do last night. After letting my creative self just flow with the feel of the photos and whatever PP that I have. I managed to finished one LO for my 2nd DS’s haven’t yet prepared album (‘cos I don’t have any new album yet, so it will go into one of my big album with every other LO.)
I dig out all my HOTP’s (PaperWishes) PP in “Denim” and “Bright Tints Blue Gingham”. Ribbons and baby brads in blue also bought from HOTP.
I’ve used one of the scallop edge paper that I bought from Scrap-n-crop, thought to myself, if I don’t use it, I’ll never know when to use it and it might just sits in my paper box forever. Just a way to tell myself not to be stingy in using scrapping papers.
So, here, a LO in blue tone with hand journal.
Oh ya.. I’ve finally came to use the velum quote that I’ve bought from SoCalScrap. It says: Every good and perfect gift comes from above – John 1:17).
To make the letter E more coordinated with the page, I’ve used blue gel pen to colour the back of the E and smudge it out. Then secure it with glue and brads saying “It’s a boy”, plus those mini blue star brads.
To save some PP which probably I can use later for mating, I’ve actually cut a square hole on those part that is hidden by the scallop paper.
Vertical ribbons are the final touch which is secure using star brads and adhere behind the PP. The top photo is actually not mated on to the dark blue PP. I’ve actually made a border with the dark blue PP leaving some space to show off the white area.
When I look at these photos, they made me realise just how time flies. He was just a little baby then and now, he is running and trying to talk like an adult. I miss those time when he is still little, when he is just learning to turn, to walk, to talk and so cuddly.
1st page of “Our Wedding” album
I finally did the first page of my wedding album after doing all the rest of the pages inside (still .. some are lacking in journalling that I’m planning to print instead of hand journal.)
Thanks for Peridot&Sapphire who gave me an idea to use our gift wedding photos. I have actually 2 different wedding photos as gift cards and I’m just being greedy that I wanted to use both.
I’ve got the idea in displaying two different photos from a page LO done by Mellette Berezoski‘s “Remember” (Scrapbooks.etc, August/Sept ’07, pg. 26)
The two gift card photos are actually in different background and mood. Thus I use PP that best represented them from my stash of papers. Other than that, I’ve used Prima B&W flowers with mini brads from Hot Off the Press. The swirl doodles are traced by using HOTP’s swirl palette. The alphabets are from Basic Grey. The rest are hand journal which I’ve copied the Mother Teresa quote from Mellette’s LO. – Love is the golden thread that ties our hearts and souls together.
Instructions:
- Cut 2 different PP into 6″x12″ and joined them with a 1″x12″ yellow cardstock.
- Mate photos into white and black cardstock respectively. Adhere as shown in LO.
- Arrange and adhere title then trace the swirl using black pen and white gel pen as shown.
- Hand journal on white cardstock then mate them into apple green and brown PP/cardstock. Adhere on LO.
- Punch small hole to secure brads with double layer of flowers.
Simple!
Silly me.. you might have known by just one look at the LO..
LOL..
oh.. by the way.. I’m sure I’m not that pretty in real person. Well.. these photos were taken in the bridal studio, sure they’ll smooth out any wrinkles and make you look super pretty like cover girl.
p/s: for my own privacy sake, I’ve blurred out me and hubby’s name *big grin showing teeth*
photos in DVD?
I had too many photos in my digicam memory card, 700 of them! Is this too many or what? Anyway, I’m getting it burn into CD in a local print shop. But when I got there and get it read, the lady recommended me to have it burn into DVD instead. Hmm.. now that is a great idea. But then won’t it make it hard for me to edit it later ‘cos my PC (pretty old already) doesn’t have DVD player installed. So I’ve requested her to burn into 2 CD instead and still not sure what will it turn out, ‘cos maybe even 2 CD still can’t fit in everything. I’ve yet to find out when I visit the print shop again tomorrow ‘cos they closed at 5pm.
Hmm.. or maybe I should get a DVD player installed in my PC instead.. senang kerja (=easier for me to work).
I actually afraid that my PC will kong out one day that I’ll loose everything, so I’m going to need to sort my photos ASAP and age it burn to CD too. Another thing is, I’ve got too many photos that I should scrap and yet didnt’ get it done ‘cos they are not being developed. Sometimes I just wish that I didn’t take that many photos during each occasion.
In another thoughts, maybe I should just get all of them develop and just stick to one size of photos, ie. 4″x6″ and do whatever I can to scrap them. That also means I hardly can put lots of photos in one page, if I would to include all..
Well.. let’s just not think about it now, let’s think about it when I get to see the CD or DVD and do my pick again.
KFC moment
Had a fun time in KFC yesterday. That is after our church, one that with not so plesent moment and didn’t even get to the end of the service.
Took out my digicam and took a few shots, not until I see them than only I realise how fun is the colour scheme and it really brightens up the whole scene. Would love to scrap about this and maybe put it as “The KFC moment”.
There the boys enjoying their KFC
After the fun moment, we all went into the supermarket to get Cal’s milk and my tools drawer from the hardware section (should have snap a photo of it too). I’ve transfered almost all my little brads, flowers and those tiny little things into it and let it stand on my scrap table. Love it!
My first cell meeting after…
2? or 3 years? ya.. I haven’t been going to cell group meeting for ages.. I think my last meeting was when Cal just around 1 year old. After having Mer, it seems like impossible to go out at night and join others in a meeting with my two sons around. I must say I thank God for letting me having the chance to go last night. At first, the plan was to bring both of them. But the after much thought I changed my mind, so I was just going to bring Cal, my 1st DS, ‘cos normally if the two of them are in the same place, they’ll fight with each other over toys, over attention and over just about anything. Further more, 2nd DS don’t know how to share yet, he just keep everything for himself and he likes to scream. I don’t want that to happen, and at the same time hoping that I can have some quiet time with my fellow church members who I have lost touch with, whose babies I haven’t met for those lost years.
It turns out that I had to bring 2nd DS ‘cos he start nagging and refuse to let go of me, oh well.. as I’ve told my friend that I’ll bring them both at the first place, so I might as well stick to my initial plan.
I thought I would be the last one to arrive the meeting venue, but I’m not!
Then my two DS have been very good behave, no screaming, no fighting over toys, just being fine boys. To my observation, that is most probably due to the age different, ‘cos all others were just babies around 1 year old and even smaller. Mer is easy at sharing, probably feeling that he is a big brother there.
So after last night, I’m so gonna go again next week, further more the venue change again, and it is definite that the boys would take up some time to warm up to it and that’s be enough fo
r me to have another quiet night enjoying the message from God.
r me to have another quiet night enjoying the message from God.This inspire me to use quote from the Bible in my scrapbooking pages. Maybe a page on the purpose of my life? Recommended for reading is this book by Rick Warren: Purpose Driven Life.
TGIF
Ya..thanks God it’s Friday! and tonight I’ll make myself available for my church cell meeting, Have been missing it for ages, ever since I got so caught up with my two DS that I’ve totally given up in going to one at night. And tonight after much struggle with myself for having to leave my one of my DS at home with my mom, then only I was able to make the decision to go. Plus with the interesting update from a friend recently on what’s going on the group which I miss so much.
That is for tonight, as for tomorrow night, as usual me and my BIL will be going back to my father-in-law’s home for the every-Saturday-gathering that we have been having ever since we moved out. The boys absolutely love it ‘cos they normally get new toys from grandpa and they get all the attention from him plus fun night with cousins.
Well.. I better get ready for the gathering tonight.
Living in the rural area
I’m living in the rural area, way out of town. Can’t tell exactly where, but it is surrounded with greens, lots of trees. So these few weeks of rain actually give us the kind of weather that you’d normally get in Ranau or Kundasang or even in our National Park during sunny days. At night we would need to have our blanket ready and there is no need of fan, we’ve got our natural air-con on, just as long as we have our windows open.
So my kids have soundless sleep, well.. not exactly, Mer still wakes up middle of the night for milk. But at least he is not complaining that he is hot. As for myself, I enjoy the cool night.
Living in the urban area also give my kids the chances to enjoy the nature more than those in the urban area like my nephew in Hong Kong. Cal is not afraid of bugs, he even let it walks on his palm till his shoulder! They both get to play with the minimal toys that one can get from the toy shop, such as this below, where Mer is playing will the real tools, or tin, or can that he can find in the house. Cal even help out sometimes when my parents are smashing the soft drinks’ can for recycle or rather selling them for some pocket money.
This is a scraplift from Christy Tomlinson’s “Anna”, shown in Scrapbooksetc, pg. 61 of January ’08 issue.
For this LO, I’ve used American Craft vinyl alphabet stickers, some ribbons and PP, some other PP, brad, button and transparent tag from HOTP and hand journalling following the Jasmine handwriting.
I still love the vinyl letter stickers, they are just so easy to use. But I’ve read in scrapbook.about that ” … contain vinyl which can release harmful gases that will deteriorate your photographs and cause fading”.
Hannie Craft - Finding Joy 
