A Very Merry Christmas and A Really New Year

This year I made 4 Christmas cards....and an important decision

First the Christmas Cards: made with lovely Purple Onion stamps

And now the decision...

Next year I'm going to be working from home quite a bit - so I can be with my kids more. I know I have to do this now, while I can, 'cos I don't want to look back and wish I had done it while they were little. And I'm very grateful that my sis has been so great about adjusting arrangements so that this can happen. So....I'll still be teaching (probably at Laine's), just twice a week and I'll be designing at home on other days.

Not sure how it will work out (maybe I'll end up driving my kids up the wall and vice versa - haha!) but they're looking forward to it and I am too....a mum's gotta do what a mum's gotta do!

So have a very blessed Christmas everybody! And here's to a very happy NEW year!

Minnasan wa Arigatougozaimashta

That means "Thank you everyone" in Japanese (I think....its been a while and my Japanese is really rusty).

Thank you all for signing up for this "Origami" class that didn't actually have that much "Origami" in it....haha. I hope you had fun!
Let Me Show You My Favourite Bits: (and teach you how to count in Japanese at the same time! Haha)

1. (Ichi) - the cover texture (dry brush Elmer's glue, let dry, ink with distress ink all over, use baby wipes to blend. The parts that are lighter are where my Elmer's glue was).2. (Ni) - This little bump - for some reason, this little 'kink' I made in the Tim Holtz filmstrip got me smiling. Maybe 'cos it fit the '09 stickers just right.3. (San) - My 'flying' aeroplane - it moves! 'Nuff said.
4. (Shi) - the City Skyline - I like how this page turned out. Just a simple pop-up fold and a Martha Stewart punch.
5. (Go) - And finally, some origami!Sayonara for now!

Stamp Giveaway! - Christmas Countdown

Purple Onion is counting down to Christmas with a super stamp giveaway! Check it out here.
The more people join the more giveaways!

Hurry hurry! only a few days left - everything is 25% till December 15th!

Suitcase

I had soooooo much fun designing this class which ran in November.....it's messy, full of texture, has some of my favourite colours, plus one happy accident which I got a lot of mileage out of.

See my...
1. Little home made compass - Tim Holtz spinner, foam dot, string, and jewellery pins.

2. My Happy Accident... to get this texture, I first stamped with my Purple Onion postmark stamps, added some patterned paper, inked it, painted over the whole thing with Elmer's glue (because I was lazy) and poured UTEE all over. And when the UTEE melts, the Elmer's glue seems to mix with it and sometimes make nice whitish 'stains' (you can see it more clearly on the top right and bottom left corners below) Then I inked everything all over again to get more ink into the cracks and crevices.

And then, because I had so much fun doing that, I did it again! This time on top of my green patterned paper, using some lace cardstock as a mask. (i.e. temporarily paste on lace cardstock, paint with Elmer's glue, remove lace cardstock, pour UTEE, melt everything, then ink all over)A big thank you to everyone who came to class and gamely got their fingers seriously dirty! I hope the ink's come off by now!

Makes You Feel Like Baking

The new mini holiday stamp release over at Purple Onion is too too cute for words! I love the cirlces and can imagine how cute they would be on bags of homemade cookies!!!
And she's got a new calendar stamp for 2010 - I love love love calendars!
Michele is also having a Holiday Sale:

25% off all stamps!

Dec 3rd to 15th

This is a good good time to be getting all those Purple Onion stamps you've been eyeing...

Look Ma, no patterned paper!

Well, almost....there's just that tiny piece on the top of the box cover. But other than that, its just lots and lots of purple onion stamps and loads of embossing powder!

I showed the tags a while back on the laine's blog (plus some instructions):

But just remembered I never did show you the box I made to keep the tag book in.Before the year is out, I've promised myself to fill it up with all the things I am thankful for in 2009. Good way to end the year I think...

Good Girl (pat pat)

Been working hard to finish these classes:

1. "Learning By The Book" : we're gonna make this from scratch

2. "Global Inspirations" -3 layouts inspired by different cultures

And have managed to have time leftover today to muck around a bit...

Made a Merdrey-inspired crater for Technique Tuesdays on the Laine's blog.....(tutorial here)

and if you read the tutorial , you'll probably be able to figure out how I did this:

gonna treat myself to something yummy now!

Denim

I finished one class sample....so here's a sneak:Quite happy with how it turned out. Was thinking about fat bikers on Harley Davidsons while I scrapped.....can you tell? Haha.

Merdrey and Betty are also showing sneak peeks of their classes. December classes are gonna be fun! Time is running out....gotta go finish other projects. Catch you later.

Sheepish....

I did not start on my December projects yesterday.....sigh...totally brain-dead and ended up doing 'factory' work - keying in customer data, ordering toner....things like that.

Class was fun though - always enjoy seeing the light 'go on' for new scrappers.

I did make a little something though...

His name's Lambchop. You can read his technical specs here

Today, today, I will, I WILL get started!!!!!! BAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

Hide and Seek...

Hidden Item No. 1: Monkeys
the kids were really hoping to spot them on the nature walk along the Southern Ridges on Saturday.......but I think they were hiding from the blistering heat....Us too!
Hidden Item No. 2: Journaling
On a layout for my parents:

Layout Title: "I've Been Meaning to Tell You..."It's really easy to include quite a bit of extra journaling space on your layout using a Zutter bind-it-all:

1. Cut notches into your base cardstock (so that the wire rings won't stick out of your page and make it not fit into your protector) - I cut 1/2" notches into my page to fit the rings

2. Then punch holes using your bind-it-all

3. make as many pages as you want, and bind it onto the layout with the rings and the Bind-it-all

See the booklet?
Semi-Hidden Item No. 3: Me
I am planning to (hoping to) go into 'hiding' this week at the store so that I can finally start on my December projects....it's 8 days into November and I haven't even started yet!

Betty says that sometimes when I am designing I don't even hear when people are talking to me....so shout if you have to - I'd still want to say hi and chat if you drop by!

The Boys

Hubby helped son with his bike-riding again yesterday....things like this make mummy happy. It's sweet.

Here's a layout of them together....with matching army jackets walking back to our hotel in Tokyo. They are very alike in many ways, these two...

"You Will Never Walk Alone" -lyrics from song by Point of Grace (No, its not the Man U one)'Technical' Info you might like to know:

1. The green stuff wrapped around the 'path' is floral tape - mine is 'ahem' Martha Stewart brand - expensive stuff ok? (haha)

2. there's brown distress stickles around the "walk alone" - looks like soil...(mental note...must do this again....)

3. The funny black markings around the edge of the pattern papers are made with chopped up rub ons.

I am feeling a little schizophrenic.....half at Laine's and half at PaperMarket - I'm gonna get confused and forget stuff and turn up at the wrong store one day....I just know it!

November is here...

The new month brings many usual routines:And some new developments: (If you look carefully, you'll see papa in the background telling him to 'brake brake!') - he managed to get all the way to the end of the path without crashing - Yay Benny!And speaking of new developments.....I get a new friend at work tomorrow...yay! yay!

And here's a 'new' project to share - yay?

7G Mini Album - "A Little Perspective Helps"- I designed this book as a class, but used the opportunity to write down for myself the important things I wanted to remember....to give myself the right perspective on everything so to speak:

Sharon's Super Corny Cover:

1. There's a pair of glasses....cos perspective is how you look at things

2. The glasses have 2 different halves - cos there's always 2 ways to look at things
3. The half that's stamped on glass has a rose behind it - rose coloured glasses - get it? get it?!!Fun Photo Effect to Share:
1. I leached out some of the colour from my photos using photoshop then printed it out on transparency
2. Cut a piece of ledger paper same size as my photo
3. then layered the 2 together

Not sure if you can see this, but the photo has a nice 'softness' to it....and you can see the ledger lines faintly showing through. You can probably achieve this same effect digitally using overlays too.

So....looks like November is off to a good start....got classes brewing in my head as usual. Tell you more as I go along.

Whole Lot of Giving Going On

Just wanted to do a real quick check in to tell you about some lovely lovely people who are giving away lovely lovely things!

1. Laine's is giving away our limited edition tote bag (the 'cartoon' one) to the first 200 VIP customers on 2 nov (starting 1:30pm) and best of all its going to be filled with Christmas surprises! Check it out

2. Purple Onion is giving away more free stamps from the new releases and also offering terrific specials on them. And there's even an overstock sale going on too. Check it out

Happy weekend!

A Little Perspective

Went to laine's the other day and cleared out some of my old projects to take home....a 'moving house' of sorts....makes one a bit sentimental. (warning.....long wordy post ahead....with only 1 photo)

I remember when I fell in love with scrapbooking....reading a scrapbooking magazine by Rebecca Sower that Elaine gave me....looking at the beautiful things she made, feeling inspired, and most of all moved at the life and heartfelt feelings she managed to capture through her pages. I'm trying to remember a little of that feeling today... it sometimes goes missing amidst the 'work'.

Over the years I have learnt to "design for work" and sometimes its hard to put your heart into it....but today I think I want to remember the best parts of my job - not just the deadlines, the time constraints, the customer preferences....

this was a bookbinding project from quite a while ago that I did where I got to have the best of both worlds - I got to design it the way I wanted, made everything from scratch, didn't care that it would probably wouldn't be possible to finish half of it in class, used all the materials that I liked and yet have peope willing to sign up for class (although there were some 'complaints' about the hard work - the binding and all the buttons on the spine were hand stitched)...But classes like these are few and far between. Most of the time, there are materials that need to be incorporated, constraints to consider (although I must state here that my sis is absolutely the best with giving me as much creative freedom as possible) - and there are days I feel tired or I design things in 'default mode' - i.e. with no heart...

But...as the title on my journal says, I guess it all boils down to "the Way I Look At Things" -

1. I can choose to see a difficult customer not as an irritant, but as someone who is part of the reason why I get to scrapbook for a living - and be grateful that they are interested in the store and my work

2. I can choose to see deadlines not as something breathing down my neck, but as signposts that help me prioritise the things I need to do - and be grateful because woolly-headed me would get nothing done otherwise

3. I can choose to see restrictions on class materials and timing not as cramping my style, but as challenges that have helped me be more creative with what I make - and be grateful for the myriads of happy accidents that have happened to me as a result.

So today....I choose to be grateful - I certainly have so much to be grateful for.

Where the Cookies Went

Some time back I 'baked' some modelling paste cookies (recipe here).
They ended up as little white flowers on this album. (all the other cookies were given out during the class)

"Origin of the Species" - Chatterbox wooden cover album

Happy Accidents and Experiments:

1. Gold Foil Texture - The gold stuff on the background is gold foil (Stewarts) - for the life of me, I have never been able to get this stuff working properly (you're supposed to be able to stamp an image and foil it but I just can't seem to get it right - I blame the Singapore weather!). So, anyways, I got fed up with trying to make it neat and did this: - I stamped using a cookie cutter and elmer's glue....and then smacked the gold foil on. Brushed away the excess bits, dried the glue with my heat gun and voila....not bad. The lumpy texture is a result of my vigorous brushing but it turned out pretty ok.

2. Glitter Glue - I used Stickles (which is a glitter glue) as a glue - (duh! Sharon!) Squirted a blob of glitter glue, pressed in a button, let the glitter squirt out the side and leave to dry. (Don't laugh ok - it was a real 'lightbulb moment' for me) - then I purposely drew white dots around them so you would notice how pleased I was with myself...haha!

3. Super Bumpy Flower Centre - Made a big blob of liquid glue, then sprinkled beads in. Heated it, watched it sputter and bubble, burst the bubbles along the way, then coloured with Staz On ink - love to touch this bit (after its cool of course) - its super hard and bumpy!

And after all that mess....tired already so did this inside....

Yes, that's me. And yes, I looked like a boy when I was little....

If I had to Choose Only 2 Cardstock Colours...

Black and white - absolutely. No contest - black and white go with everything!

Here's black and white with blue....her favourite. (Hmmm....just realised the background doesn't actually look very white in this photo.....)

Layout Title: "Happy Happy Birthday Dear Beth"
Sharon is Feeling Very Singaporean :
Its probably not very clear (cos its in the background) but I 'enlarged' a 6X6" square of GCD parisian labels pattern paper into an 9X9" square. Here's how:

1. Cut all the labels apart from the patterned paper (this would work with any other pattern that has many 'pictures' on it)
2. Spread them out on your larger piece of cardstock (or in my case chipboard).
3. Whitewash the whole piece, carefully painting around the images.
4. See, you save money and it looks artsy at the same time! How Singaporean is that!

I wish the weather wasn't so Singaporean today....sigh.

The Designers are Out in Full Force

Classes at Laine's:
Classes at PaperMarket: - click here. (sorry, no Photoshop!)

All the class designers: Betty, Jaz, Merdrey, Yanni and me - are looking forward to you signing up for our classes next month. So....M-I-C (see you real soon)....K-E-Y (why? because we like you....M-O-U-S-E. (Do you remember this???)

She's Coming to Papermarket

This little lady was sold out in September, but will be making a re-appearance in PaperMarket's November class line up.

Here's a closer look at her:

This was one of those projects where ' magic' happened - everything just came together all in a rush. I had fun making the dress.....but I wouldn't be caught dead wearing something like that (fleshy upper arms are best hidden in my case - haha). Funny how scrapping style doesn't match dressing style....does yours?

p.s. Class doesn't include the stand, but you can buy it during class at a special discount.

Purple Onion Giveaway!

Hey hey, quick quick, faster faster, go to the Purple Onion Blog:
'cos Michele is having a giveaway!

Here's what you have to do:
1. Click here
2. Post an all time favorite recipe or something new you are looking to try before 21 Oct midnite (US time)
3. Pray that Michele will pick your name from the pool so you can win one of the new stamps!

There will be additional stamp giveaways over the next week or so. So please check the blog daily to participate.

Sneaky Sharon

I am done! (well, more or less) - finished designing 3 classes for November. I showed you sneaks of one of them earlier, but thought I'd put all the sneaks up together here:

1. "Have Suitcase Will Travel" - altered Maya Road Suitcase (for Laine's) 2. "Origami Adventure" - mini album featuring some of the fun folds and mini books I learnt from my reading. (for Laine's)
the plane moves...3. "Yummy Scrummy" - mini album using Fancy Pants mixed page album and lots of food-themed stuff. I made: a cake, a toaster (with toast of course!), a mug and an oven mitt (amongst other things)
Things to Be Happy About:
1. I get to go back and teach some classes at Laine's again - yay for me!!!
2. If you sign up for both the Suitcase and the Origami class, you'll get a pack of my all time favourite twill alphabets free.
3. I am done! I am done! I am done! (actually now I have to make a duplicate of the "Yummy" album 'cos its running at both stores....sigh)

Ok...back to the factory