Keep crafting

Some weeks I craft more and most weeks less. I have not gotten around to scheduling my posts so they are still fairly random at the moment.

One thing I did wish was for more time to craft, and more time to play with my kids. Both parts are linked in some ways, since ms E is bogged down by spelling revision every week and she too can't craft - while I would be entertaining bbC while ms E studies.

Anyway, in the moments that I do manage to grab, I do make quick birthday cards while peeking guiltily at my project life stack from the corner of my eye...

Here's one I did recently with my spellbinder tags dies, worked my sizzix and pull out some loose supplies for a quick fix. The end result is viola!

Birthday girl Esther & the celebrating party loved it. And well, so did I :)

Till the next crafty post, keep crafting!

Up cycle

I had this kokopelli box which I was keeping for the longest time, waiting for the right opportunity to alter it.

The chance came on Evelyn's birthday, when I bought a "gem" encrusted ribbon necklace for her. I had to make a box to send along the gift and espied the kokopelli box in the corner. With black soft velvet lining, it was perfect!

I pulled out my Japanese fabric tape, lace , pearls and set to work. Happily it came to this. Thanks also to the fabric tape, I managed to transform the loose lid box into a flap cover.

My finishing touches was from Martha Stewart's frame, and the tiny veneer from Studio Calico. Tada!

Usefulness of mini pads

I have unknowingly amassed a collection of mini paper pads, from brights to pastels to bizarre prints. Strangely, I use them very little simply because I'm not sure what I should do with the tiny prints.

So far, I've use them on mini albums and not much else. However, I've started using them on cards, maximizing what I see on a single piece into a card.

Here are two that I did recently around the Easter theme. Both are birthday related. One is a tag, and the other is atop a little box. I finished the second with a tag that was hand-written as it felt more personal though it may look less professional.

Each were made from a single sheet of 6x6. Which do you prefer?

A red packet of well wishes

Today I attended the wedding of my colleague, good friend, fellow scrapper Kee Ping. Other than giving her the traditional red packet of well wish, I was also to bring her a card made by my junior cardmaker ms E. ms E made this for last month's scrapbook challenge when she heard the prize was a stamp. It motivate her to use her Webster Page to make something that could fit on the cover of my Collage Press red packet. (I attached the photo of her card we submitted for the challenge.)

She won.

And so I had to make sure I showcased her card well. And here is my simple base to her romantic card, specially for Ken and KP.

Have a blessed marriage!

Shadow treasure

At the start of March, I travelled with two good friends to Bangkok and we did a lot of touristy things. We also had the chance to celebrate the birthday of one of them, Jamie.

We did the shopping, beauty and finally dine without the wine as there was a blanket ban on alcoholic drinks across the city that day due to elections day being the next. Guess they wanted to keep everyone sober.

Anyway, so I came back and worked quickly on a gift box to keepsake what I felt was an iconic moment in the trip for her. The next day, I packed it off and sent it by courier to her. She was delighted.

Sometimes we don't realize that the small action by us will still mean a lot to the people viewing it and we stop crafting or stop trying. I find myself struggling with project life because I naturally gravitate towards taking zillions of photos to post on Facebook but have problems choosing what to reassemble back to put down - especially when we have limited time due to the challenge of the girls' conflicting school schedules and all that daily traveling to and fro. But the joy of them flipping it makes me try to squeeze the crafting into pockets of time when I have it. I'm still far behind - which is why I have not been posting. But I will again, soon.

Jhang's farewell

We had this temp who worked with us for a really short while and looked like a young korean wannabe.  He was as hardworking as our korean counterparts, and was also dilligent and meticulous.

On his last day, which we made him extend, we brought him out for lunch and gave him a farewell card.  I think he broke tradition by not making us anything in return. hahahaha/

Anyway, we all signed this and he was off to his new journey as a permanent staff in a creative firm.

Materials : Card - DCVW; Papers - October Afternoon

Let's go Party!

Charis just celebrated her birthday over the weekend and Mom (as she likes to call me) was frazzled.  She had one celebration in school on Friday and one at home on Sunday.

I packed all the goodie bags for Friday and made little luggage shaped goodie bags for Sunday, but I only took photos on Sunday (DUH). 

Here's some photos of what I managed to capture that day.  We made many Martha Stewart Puff Balls in purple, shades of purple, misted with purple and decorated with purple flowers. 

Ini mini miney more

I joined a challenge again, because I was so motivated by the giveaway. It was a Benefit pouch with a mermaid on the cover, listening to her seashell and going "she shops by her shell phone by the sea shore". It was amusing and I was sold!

So the rules were 6x6, using red green and white, with at least one photo 2"x 3", and twine in any color.

All that glitter is me, but the frills, puff and laces, I've gotta work on it!

I have not scrapped 6x6 ever, so it was a mental challenge for me! I scrapped away one instax photo and I really did not like the final look before I finally figured I could do a mini layout. Thankfully it was the start of the year and I had on hand little photos that I took of my girls for school use. I had one cheeky one of Charis which I wanted to keep somewhere, so I popped it into this layout challenge which I completed in an hour!

Look at that cheeky bit!

I did some doodling, stamping, misting and inked up some vellum butterflies.  My latest loot of Amy T's stamps are the best.  A little here, a little there and I completed my layout for the challenge.

And a million thanks to everyone that voted, I won the Benefit pouch.  I shall post a pix of it when I receive it ♥

materials used : Paper - Prima, scraps  from October Afternoon; Mists - Maya road metallic green diluted; Inks - Distress peeled paint, Catseye, Archival ink; Washi - typo; Twine - doodlebug.

Whiz

I think all crafters have husbands who think they are genius whizzes. Mine is no exception. With a last minute prompt near noon that we had to attend a family party in the evening, we scooted home with gifts, took our lunch, put my youngest to bed and I was left with the last and most important thing to do before going. Wrap the gifts.

With only an hour or so to spare, I didn't really have much of any time. So I whipped out my OA papers and got to work. So I did manage to wrap up all the gifts, and here's a small sampler of what I managed to capture before we burst out of the house.

In days like this, I laud inventions like glitter gel pen. It saved me from a whole lot of work in an emergency like this!

Till the next lot to wrap. Have you done yours?

New addition

Happily, we were called upon to attend a first month celebration for our new born nephew. Tristan turned a full month old on 2 Dec and we were going to drop by to pass him a gift.

I bought him a pair of cute owl shoes and a spiffy boy sweater from H&M (forgot to take photos) and thought maybe he needs more than that. Made him a box (& forgot to take photos again) and then made him a mini first year milestone album.

I did remember to take a photo of the mini :)

Goodbye school

After the concert, we wanted the girls to have a break before they started new school next year. As 30 Nov was their last day, we arranged for them to give "Thank You tags" to their teachers for all the love they had received throughout the year.

We incorporated the girls' painting into the tags as background and bling them up to be hung as decor.

For BbC's teachers

For Ms E's teacher

All the frills that defines ms E.

And the roses, crystals and blings.

BbC is more eclectic, with a mishmash of bright little things.

and heavy on textures, and shapes and touch.

Thanksgiving

It's the time of the year to keep crafting for thanksgiving and gratitude. And for the kids, it's making thank you cards for teachers.

Today it's bbC's turn to start the process as she will be leaving the current preschool in two weeks time, to change to a new preschool next year.

Here's a sneak of work in progress as I work with her to put together her items.

And what ms E was making last week? It's been completed and filled with her friends notes and addresses, as it is also her final year in preschool before she steps into primary school in 2013.

Myself, I've been crafting as well. A quick thank you card exchange in a course I was attending, & my recipient is a male classmate.

Maybe it's time to think about crafting and thanking someone today too. Start yours :)

Shared Time

The thing with being a working mum is that "me" time can be easily usurped by our kids. In this case, it's my crafting time.

I have been sharing my crafting time with Ms E, as she wants to make a farewell book for her friends and teachers to sign off.

Naturally, kids take a lot longer to craft, especially my 6 going 7 crafter. So here's the sneak peek of Work in Progress.

Kyle Birthday Card by E

Ms E had a good friend in school named Kyle. He had a birthday today and she wanted to make sure he had her address in it as well, as this is their final year in Kindy together.



She pulled out some supplies and declared to me that "Kyle's favorite color is green". After she dictated the stuff she wanted, I helped her trim the Bella Blvd paper and she pasted it down and chose her fonts. Thanks to the generous rak from TinkerB Mich, she had these nice fonts to match her card.


Finally, the card is finished with cute sprinkles and gem dots. Cuteness! ❤

Spending time

The best way to spend time with your children is to do things together.

For my girls, it's simple crafting, playing, baking that they enjoy with me. Baking especially because they get to lick the batter & meringue!

Ms E recently had an eyelid op and had been home alone with me for a couple of days. I did not want to resort to tv, so we crafted together. Taught her how to get inspiration from others creations and here are cards we made together.

I always feel her choices are different from mine even though we selected from the same pile. Do you think so?

Follow your heart

My workplace neighbor, Nalini, applied and received a promotion in another part of our organization. Her real desire is to assist people, and so armed with her degree in Social Assistance, she has gone over to do exactly that.

She had real reluctance to leave us behind since she had more than 8 wonderful years sitting in the same place with many new people. To encourage her, I made this as her farewell gift : follow your heart.

This is meant to be something she could display propped on her desk, when she needs encouragement or misses us. Follow Your Heart was exactly what she is doing, and I am sure she will be more satisfied.

It's all done up in purple because this is her favorite color. ❤

Want a future

The talented DorcasYHJ held a facebook group challenge on her Moments Recorded, asking for entries following the guidelines of 1) 4 patterned papers , 2) 3 brands and this was what I came up with.

I pulled out a piece of paper from my Prima ledger pack and recognised this as something from Pixie Glen (which incidentally I did a project with and I taught a class with it as well). I dug through my scraps bag and pulled out a K&Co, Kaisercraft, October afternoon and Pink Paislee to go with this layout.  I also pulled out my distress inks and mask and did a first cut in an hour in the night.  When I snapped the photo of the first cut, I realised that it did not have enough depth. In the morning, I worked on deepening the masked effects.

I think it quite paid off since I think this turned out to be a really striking layout.  I did not spend a lot of time putting it together but the longest time of inactivity was actually on the titling and journalling.  I spent a good 10-20 minutes staring at the layout! hahahhaa.... I need to work on my titling skill.

Rest

My rainbow sister Lily's birthday falls on the end of September.  Lily loves purple, and I made a purple card for her last year.  But I did not want to make a purple card for her this year so I thought a little about it. 

Our pastor always speaks to us regarding the finished work of Christ, and always reminds us to be in a position of resting in His promises.  Lily too is a christian, so I naturally wanted her to "rest".   Lily is a busy bee and so I thought what better to depict rest than a chair.

I stamped this houndstooth armchair in deep purple and had it embossed , fussy cut and popped on a yellow green background.  It is a little lime in color but I could not get an accurate tinge on the iphone. My cam could not be repaired so I am depending on my 4S until I have decided which camera or whether I need a new camera at all...

I embossed a piece of vellum, stained it lightly with purple chalk pigment, then misted a piece of lace to match.  I was quite pleased with the effect! Then I put in my signature bling by the pearls to finish up the bow, and tiny crystals to "stud" the vellum frame to complete the look.  The happy birthday tag is handwritten on washi tape, on a white cardstock piece.  

Of course, I had to stamp a crown to complete the royalty look!

Gorgeous , ain't it?

Materials : Card base - DCVW, Emboss plate - Cricut, MT washi tape.

Teacher Notes

Here's a quick one on a project done by both girls and myself, with me making one notebook and assisting them on the rest.  Through this project I realised that my "junior cardmaker" Ms E, as she is affectionately known, has her own personal style.  And it is distinctively different from mine.

Here are the notebooks.

 The top two are made by her.  Can you see her style ?  What she has chosen to make and the way she embellished is similar to what she did here.  That was some time early quarter of this year.  The words were added by me and she went "Mum, why did you add them here!".  I wonder where she would have added them, and in what way.

These two, the one on the left was me assisting my younger girl, BbC / Charis.  She loves purple so she picked out the washi tape and basically dictated what she wanted hers to look like.  The one on the right, I made that cos well, we did not have much time left till teacher's day.

So when I put them to photograph I realised that there was two distinct styles featured here.  And well, that made me kinda happy.

Materials : Studuo 112 notebooks, Paper - October Afternoon, DCVW, Tim Holtz Sizzix diecuts, washi tape

National Day Challenge

The thing with using blog app is that sometimes the format doesn't come online as I want it to, or it just doesn't post when the connection doesn't allow.  It does contribute to me being a frustrated blogger, but not a frustrated scrapper. 

Still, having a smart phone is the best, because it allows me to go Pinterest and Facebook... both of which I spend a lot of time on when I am not able to do scrapping.

Here's something I absolutely need to do on desktop,  which is Print Screen.


This collage of 9 layouts is taken off my Facebook where I ran a challenge in the scrapbook group that I teach.  The theme was National Day and a rough sketch was given as a guide.  Mine was fairly close to the sketch so you can look at theirs and see how creatively they have utilised the sketch to come out with a number of configurations :)

For this layout I again utilised my typewriter, which I will introduce one day after I give it a through clean up. Instead of using it to type words or journalling like usual use, I used it to make the background you see on that little scallop ledging that the photos stand on.  It says "I LOVE SINGAPORE" in red, and I typed it on white textured cardstock for that slightly uneven ink feed.  I then punched it out with the MS ledger edge punch and finished the corner to give that rounded look.

I realised I like masking, and used my inks and mask to give some color and depth to my Pink Paislee Nantucket paper (for some reason I love the line sketched flowers design) and finished off the edges with thin pink Washi Tape.

Materials :Pink Paislee - background paper and mask,, Cardstock - Bazill, DCVW, Stamp - doily from MME, Trims and cardstock orchid from Papermarket, washi tape and dewdrops.