Reasons to Smile

1. Someone gave me flowers (green one's a sunflower bud) - (Incidentally, he never ever buys me flowers. I always get 'strange stuff' like this. I say its called being cheap, he says its called being unique - haha!)

2. Benny has a sense of humour (black part's the flush button)

3. I finally did this: I have been trying to scrap this photo for ages...finally got round to it and did some happy experiments along the way.

Journaling: "You said it would be fun.....You said, 'we'll be there before you know it'.....You said, "I don't think its very far off".......Yeah, Sure!!!"

Experiments to try again in future:
1. Ink with a dry paint brush (with a dabbing motion) - used it around the photo and along the bottom

2. Glimmer Mist over eyelets.

3. Folded 'y' shaped grass

(And yes, I used the same paper on the card in the previous post)

Smile! The weekend's here!

Back to Nature

Being married to a gardening man means having
- a giant compost heap in front of our house
- rhinoceros beetle grubs in said compost heap (they're gross!!! about the size of your thumb and you can see the insides.....ewww)
- worries whenever the mosquito check guy from the Ministry of the Environment comes by.
- moth pupae that you can watch as they hatch

But best of all, it means the kids learn about nature from nature - not just from books. (And as they've discovered, its much messier than in the books)

Beth's gardening Adventure:

Beth finds a potato
- for some reason, there is a lonely potato sitting along our corridor

"I will plant it!" she says (Cuteness almost wins over praticality)


Papa to the rescue (the cute pot is reluctantly given up)


Good to go! Now we wait!

Here's Mummy getting back to nature:

I think I overdid it with the ink a bit 'cos you can hardly see the bird in the cage, but...oh well.

Hey, if you're ever in Simei and you pass a house with a 'jungle' outside, wave hello! I'll let you have a rhinoceros beetle grub!

May 2010 Laines Sneaks

I indulged myself quite a bit this time around. Choosing my favourite colours....

I made:

one very 'bloody' looking clear page album with very little paper and a lot of ink and powder


Three chocolate coloured layouts with lots of paint - dark, milk and white chocolate


One teal and brown mini album (no sewing I promise) featuring the Chip Art tool from Melody Ross / g.c.d.

Schedule is out and all samples are at the store and ready for viewing!
I enjoyed designing these projects....hope you like them too!

M & M....and a PODcast

Hey hey! I finally finished the layout using the materials Merdrey picked for me:
I must say it was fun (Though I chickened out and used only a few of the sparkly pink roses (that's her favourite paper incidentally) and I'm quite liking how it turned out:

Layout Title: "Missing Squishy"
Me Parts:
1. The embossing and inking in the background
2. The sanded edge of the layout
3. The little piece of twill
4. The title which is a pun (She misses her Squishy 'cos Squishy has gone missing)
(I would say the black tape is me also if it didn't have pink polka dots on it!!!)

Merdrey Parts:
1. everything else!

Here's a little close up of my favourite part:I wrote about how to do this on this week's laines blog post.

POD-CAST:
The Purple Onion Sentiment Sale has been extended till Friday April 23! Remember its 50% off individual sentiments!

Click here to see the stamps

One of my all time favourites - "What's the Point?" (the one with all the different sized pointing fingers) is on sale!!! under the "Some other images I threw on sale" section. I have to tell you I have used these pointing fingers on sooooo many things.

Purple Onion Sentiment Stamp Sale!!!

Out with the old, in with the new! Purple Onion Designs is looking to clear out some inventory to make room for some new stamps!

This is a first time offer...

All individual sentiments are 50% off!

Getting bored with the same old sentiments? Now is the time to add some fresh, new sentiments to your stamp collection.

Hurry on over to the website and check out the great deals. The sale is limited stock. Once a sentiment sells out it will be marked out of stock and no longer available for the sale price. Sale ends Sunday April 18th.

Go tell your friends too! This is a super deal!

Another Little Sister!

Papermarket is opening a branch at Plaza Singapura!

Its located in the basement, right next to Burger King and it opens TOMORROW!!!

Didn't see this one coming did you? heh heh...

POD = Purple Onion Designs

I'm about to leave for a long busy day at work.....with Sis and Mer and Cyn. Yay!!!

But before I go, here's a POD card for you because you always come to my blog and look see look see and always say sweet sweet things to me to make me happpy.

(and yes, I made this cute pink thing.....somehow distressing the ice creams would have seemed rather wrong....haha)

I'm off!

Beautiful Things:

"Art is man's nature....nature is God's art" - James Bailey

blue skies

garden visitor

a man in his element

And me in mine:

Handbound Book: (Multi-needle Coptic Stitch) - Family Traditionsall my favourite colours

The spine...Multi-needle coptic stitch just sounds hard but really isn't. It is really hard to describe in words though.....

Inside cover

'ghost' stamping

'Ghost' Stamping (aka happy experiment)
Here's how:
1. Rub a generous amount of distress ink onto your paper (choose something dark, like Walnut Stain)
2. Spray your stamp with stamp cleaner (it should be wet enough so it looks shiny, but not so wet that it 'drips')
3. Press stamp very firmly onto inked area and hold for about 10 sec
4. Ta-Dah!

Keep in Touch...

And I do think that that saying ought to be taken seriously - both figuratively AND literally - especially with the ones you love.a good hubby lets wife pose his hand while he works on the computer

Benny and DD

Besties - Beth and Charmaine

And in keeping with the theme of today's post.....
TECH SPECS FOR CRAFTY CHAPS:
- Card for Purple Onion Designs (stamps: What's the Point? Vintage PostCARD set, Antique Fair Set)
- Paper - Graphic 45

Told You I was Corny: (sorry, couldn't resist. Corniness makes me happy)
1. The pointing finger is touching the word "touch"
2. The card shows different ways you can keep in touch (writing letters, calling on the phone. Sorry, couldn't find any pics of email...)

Hey.....so.....I know I haven't been around as much at Laine's.....but keep in touch ok?

Lessons Learnt

1. Never lose the wonder (learnt this on Easter Sunday)

Critters celebrate the rain on the way to church

2. Some people like dirty messy things even more than I do. (learnt this while teaching the canvas hinged book class )
Thank you to all the enthusiastic ladies who got their hands super dirty especially those who took home canvases even blacker than mine!

You learn something new every day eh?