Ngoo Status Updates

School has started and...

we have new haircuts.... (check out hubby's freaky evil eye)
Extremely wiggly teeth...
and a new layout for Purple Onion Designs:

Layout Title: "Princess" (Or maybe should be Peranakan Princess? Check out my mum's beautiful kebaya!)This is one seriously girly layout....but I quite like how it seems to have a 'fairy tale' book feel to it. (at least it does to me...haha).

Maybe its because of the "Royal Proclamation sign" (from POD Antique Fair set)? The little 'brick' is also from the Antique fair set and is my nod to Peranakan tiles
And those flowers from the Ornamentals Set help finish the fairy tale look.
My status = Grateful and happy.

Happy Birthday!!!

A very very happy happy birthday to Let's Get Shabby - a super yummy and cool challenge blog featuring all things shabby and vintage! (I like!)

I am very very honoured to be invited to be their guest this month as part of their Birthday Challenge!

And Michelle of Purple Onion Designs is offering a seriously SUPER DUPER PRIZE for this month's challenge!!! (won't give away the secret here)

So hop on over and check out the lovely inspiration from the talented "Let's Get Shabby" design team (some of their work is shown here) and join in!!!

And here's what I designed for the birthday challenge!
Look out for more "Let's Get Shabby" fun soon - there'll be more yummy goodies and birthday celebrations!

July Sneaks are Out

July class sneaks are out on the laines blog. Go sign up!!! I'm really looking forward to seeing all of you again in class - this long holiday is turning me into something of a slug...

And here's something I made in my pre-slug days (aka last month):

Mini Album: "Free Spirit"


We played with the Melody Ross chip art tool from g.c.d. in class (its used on the brown semi-circle chipboard piece) and it was good fun hammering on the classroom floor!

The kids are making the most of the last few holi-days and I think I will join them. Tomorrow....back to work!

At Last.....

It was like squeezing blood from a stone this month....but I....AM....DONE!!!!

Mini Album No. 1: went totally stamp crazy trying to catalog some of my favourite stamping techniques past and present (I tried to show you a bit of everything below). I still haven't put the photos in yet and it needs some journaling to really 'finish' it but at least it is 'done'. This one was very painful.....but very satisfying - so of course its my favourite.


Mini Album No. 2: Lots of Jenni Bowlin papers and happy heartwarming colours. I really like how the tree turned out and I am very pleased with how chunky this feels.Aaaahhhhh.....feels good.

Tuesday Tutorial

I just found these photos on my camera - I'd intended to use them when teaching this layout in class but I forgot all about them and turns out we didn't really need them 'cos we managed to get it done anyhow.

So, I guess, now I can show YOU instead - haha. Just in case you wanted to know.

FIRST: I stamped with acrylic paint onto a transparency. (I used corrugated cardboard and a Tim Holtz stamp). (you could actually stamp directly, but I wanted the rectangular shape)WARNING!!! If you are going to stamp using acrylic paint, wash immediately after you stamp otherwise it is VERY PAINFUL trying to get the paint out of the stamp (trust me on this one). Rubber stamps work better.

AND THEN: I pasted some Tim Holtz alpha stickers around the rectangle and dry brushed the same coloured acrylic paint around it. (After painting, I immediately regretted not putting everything a bit more to the right, but.... I'll just have to deal with that later)
AND THEN: I added some paper (to give a little 'quiet' from the mess behind) and tore away the right edge of the layout and added some Creative Imaginations wood paper to balance off my 'mistake' with the positioning earlier.
AND THEN: It still felt a bit too 'clean', so I dry brushed more paint on the edges, and stamped some little words peeking out here and there among the paint. Some twine for texture and title and its done.
I was looking back at some of my older layouts and I realise that I do stamped backgrounds A LOT!!! Strange that I only just realised that about myself....

Today is Saturday...

And I still haven't started designing....

We spent Thursday at Pasir Ris Park, playing in the slight drizzle (You can tell the Critters didn't care one bit about getting rained on):

please oh please can we come back here again?

And since I still have nothing new to show you, here's something from last month:

This is my "Vampire Album" class (aka Clear Album) using a Maya Road clear acyrlic album.

Happy Accident of the Bloody Kind:



Here's what I did to create the 'stain' on the top right corner of this clear page:
1. Drip various colours of alcohol ink on the back of the clear acrylic page (I used black, red, orange, gold silver)

2. Wait for a while till the ink is almost dry (it should look sticky, not glossy)

3. Press another acrylic page onto the ink and press down, then lift. It will make those lovely 'veins' and streaks.

It's very much a 'hit and miss' thing and you may find yourself erasing it off with blending solution a couple of times before it looks the way you want it to, but its super fun trying!

Then, it looks really nice if you stamp (with Staz On ink) on the front of the page (I stamped these lovely Purple Onion leaves) 'cos the thickness of the acrylic page makes a little 'depth'. And I glued a piece of patterned paper behind it so you can see the colours of the ink better.

Here are more pics of the album (You can tell I went really crazy with the stamping - almost all Purple Onion ones):

A big thank you to everyone for signing up! Hope you had fun making a mess!

Now I really have to get cracking on July's classes.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

We're almost halfway through the school holidays and I am really behind on my class designs this month....too much holiday relaxing going on at our house!!!

Got off my butt long enough to do this.... but not much else...

52Q - Question 1: What are your hopes for 2010?


And I did this before the holidays so it doesn't count:

Layout Title: "He's Still Working on Me"

Stuff Which Might Interest You if You Scrap:
1. The background is stamped using an uncut piece of Purple Onion Date Me Stamp - stamped with white gesso, then when dry, inked over with Wild Honey Distress Ink (I am quite liking this new colour).

2. The tree stamp is another favourite from Purple Onion.

3. The printed measuring tape and "under construction" twill ribbon is super yummy! (available at laines) - I got like 3m of each!!!

Ok....gotta go! can't talk too much.... I'm supposed to be working!!! (but we're off to the beach - haha!)

A Slice of Holiday Home Fun

told in pictures...

critters hanging out

Luke Skywalker helps out at the Hello Kitty Ramen cafe

lego building

Miss frog and Mr Elephant are friends

Me? Well, I can't show you what I've been up to yet....but I will soon. Not so cute, but just as fun.

Happy Holidays

Lots of people are off on trips but we are staying in Singapore this holiday. Trying to find a balance between having fun and doing holiday homework - just spending time together, hanging out, playing...

Here are some layouts using photos from our previous holidays:

Layout Title: "Sun Sand and Sea" (photos from trip to Redang)
Scrappy Info:
1. The 'sand' around the squares is made using glossy accents and weathered white embossing powder. When you heat it, the glossy accents cooks (as always) and the embossing powder ends up looking like very very tiny bits of fine sand


Layout Title: "Warm & Fuzzy" (photo from Australia trip)
Scrappy Info:
I have to say I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE how this layout turned out! I wanted to go for that 'washed out' look and it looks almost like how I imagined it. There's not a lot of texture and its kind of 'flat' but I am just super super happy with the stamping 'fade outs'... using all Purple Onion stamps of course!

1. Stamping Fade Out - basically, each time I inked my stamp, I tried to keep stamping on the page until the ink ran out, hence all the different shades of grey. I am digging how the little Purple Onion circles turn out with this technique.

Best of all, you don't have to clean your stamp - haha!