>>> Unity Bachelor Bro Challenges! <<<

Unity Stamp Company has come up with a 7 week challenge. They have chosen a man (hence the name Bachelor Bro) to choose the winning project based on a weekly requirement set out every Thursday. I'm taking part only so that I can make use of my Unity stamps. I still haven't settled down into my crafting routine yet.

Anyway, here's this week challenge: To make something shiny or glittery, use 1 patterned paper and 2 buttons. Here's my effort:

I created a pull out card. Patterned paper by Scrapworks Magpie collection. Teapots from June09 KOTM set. Sticklers applied to the teapots to make them glitter as well as to the outline of the card.

Here's how the card looks when a tag is pulled out. Cup and sentiment are from Hodge Podge of Happiness set.

Background stamp on tag is from Le Chic Vintage, a new scrapbooking stamp set. Luv that set!

Background stamp is Distressed Dots.

Here's last week's challenge which was to make an invitation for a date and to use the colours red, black and green. Here's what I've done:

The inside of the card reads: 'Let's Hang Out'.

We popped into Costco yesterday and I saw this:

And hubs got them for me. I luv these and luv the new favours but the gold ones are still my favs! :) Trying to eat one a day is highly impossible so I try to avoid eating them all at once! LOL! TTFN!

>>> Grand Prix! <<<

The Grand Prix is held in Singapore this weekend. Wish it was held in August. Luv the fact that they hold it at nite (much cooler) but also it makes broadcasting live far easier too. Know exactly where the circuit is as we walked past there last month and saw them getting ready for the event. Singapore is such a small country.

Down with flu at the moment. This hasn't been my week at all. It has been a long and tiring week and I was so glad it came to an end but it also left me feeling weak too. I'm surprised the flu has come earlier but heck, better now than later as I'm away on a scrapping retreat next weekend! Bliss, 3 days of crafting sans interruption!

Need to finish up some projects... TTFN!

>>> Unity's Friends With Flair Friday! <<<

Woo Hoo! It's time again for Friends With Flair Friday! This time around, I play with the Bright & Merry Winter Wishes stamp set. Got my eye on this set when it first came out and I luv it especially the quotes and words on the set. Unity has now brought out more Xmas stamp sets... ohhh so tempting! Here's what I created using this set:

Patterned paper by Basic Grey Boxer collection. Black cardstock embossed using Cuttlebug embossing folder. Stamped imaged coloured using Promarkers and highlighted by sticklers.

Have to make a start with Xmas cards... Xmas is just 91 days away....gulp! TTFN!

>>> Urghh! <<<

Internet started playing up on Monday nite but thankfully not before I managed to send off an important email and uploaded my card for a competition! Then no access on Tuesday and finally the technician came and sorted it on Wednesday. Modem went kaput. So got a new one but now, wireless router doesn't recognise it and despite having installed an updated firmware (had to call hub's company IT dept to sort it as the PC desktop is kindly supplied by them), it still doesn't work! So here I am, having to rely on only one PC to get access to the net. Been so used to having surf the net on my bed with my Mac!

This has been a busy week for me. Loads to do in school. Also input all schedules in my iCal (calendar feature on Mac). Luv the iCal as I've set up different calendars for different purposes (i.e. one for school term, one for ECA, etc) and it's so much easier to see now what's going on as they are all colour coded.

Had a few postal nitemares this week. First, my Scarlet Lime kits (Aug & Sep) were sent to Singapore instead of here!!! Arghh! This despite informing the owner of change of address! Sigh! It will be a while before I see those kits unless my bro happens to have UK on his flight schedule! And I was so looking forward to playing with them. Second, got a custom charge for the first time this year on a Unity stamp set. Bought the Le Chic Vintage including other stamps and 'cos I was over the limit by a mere £2, I was charge £3 by customs and a whopping £8 by the Royal Mail!!! Sigh! What a week!

Can't wait when this week ends. I need a break seriously and half term isn't till 23rd Oct! TTFN!

>>> Beautiful Sunday! <<<

Another fabulous day, sunny and warm! Spend the late morning at an Apple workshop for iTunes where the chap gave us lessons on using iPhoto, iMovie and a bit of Garageband. There was more people this time. Again, the workshop was very informative and I'm luving the Mac even more now!

Met up with the family and we headed to Ikea, where we had lunch and then bought the boys an Expedit bookcase (4x2) for their room. Getting fedup of seeing their toys on the floor so now they have no excuse not to clear up (before it used to be on top of the wardrobe which is pretty high).

Got home and I eagerly tried the iMovie with my camcorder. Unfortunately, my particular Macbook doesn't come with a firewire so thereby I wasn't able to upload my movies (my camcorder uses the miniDV and a check on net showed that it wasn't possible to use it with a USB port as the iMovie won't pick up the camcorder). So in other words, it's back to the PC to do convert my movies!!! Oh well, I'm sure I'll find a way albeit a long one! Anyway, did manage to upload some movies on my Nikon compact camera and so had a play with them. Oh gosh, I had so much fun creating a movie, adding transition, title and music! It was easy once you got the hang of it! No doubt, will try to make a movies with all the videos that I had taken of my trip in Singapore! Looks like I'll be using my compact camera more often to capture videos now. I guess I can kiss goodbye to my old fashioned camcorder! Pity though as it had a fab zoom lens! TTFN!

>>> On Display: BackPorch Memories <<<

My BackPorch Memories kit came late this month but got down to it as soon as it arrived. I was given the Solo kit to play with. Here's what on offer this month:

Solo kit featuring Little Yellow Bicycle Traveler collection

Medley kit featuring My Mind's Eye Abbey Road, Pink Paislee Amber Road and SEI Moravia

BPM Sep stamp set

Here's my creations. The Traveler papers came in handy as I used photos of my vacation in Singapore.

A family portrait taken in Tanjong Pinang, Indonesia

Hubs and I at Lady Gaga's concert in Fort Canning Park

Having dinner with some best friends.

Finally a card using leftover scrap papers including a puzzle piece cut wrongly. Couldn't leave that to waste, could I?

Currently working on a mini album.... watch this space! TTFN!

>>> Workshop! <<<

Attended an Apple workshop today at the Bullring this morning. It was on iTunes & iPod. I happened to be only one but it was great. Picked up a few tips on using iTunes and even managed to ask about other questions too. Got another class this Sunday on iLife so that will be interesting!

Coping rather well with routines although have to say it has certainly tire me out a wee bit by mid-week. Hoping I'll be back in form and creating as my crafting mojo has certainly left me. TTFN!

>>> Winner Of Unity Single Stamp! <<<

First of all, apologies for the delay in announcement. As usual, life got in the way as well as scrapping assignments!

I did a random number generator of all comments received and this was what it came out:Checking through the comments, here's the lucky winner:

Congrats Amy!!! Please email Eryn(at)unitystampco.com for your choice of single Unity stamp. Mention my blog and Growing In Unity week. TTFN!

>>> The Weekend! <<<

More clearing out, more sorting, more re-organising .... just seem never-ending! Glad to say cleared all luggage (except one which contain the boys' toys) and put the whole lot in the loft! Got rid of loads of clothes yet I still seem to run out of wardrobe space!!! Next will come the toys! Boys got loads that they don't play anymore.... will have to clear them when they aren't around.

Been busy creating with BackPorch Memories Sep Solo kit. It came late , doesn't help that the PO here had a strike a few weeks back hence I can only image the backlogs they are now going through! Let's hope it was worth their while as they now have to work doubly hard to clear the backlogs!

Managed to get through the week in sane mind. It was long though, I guess, after a long break somehow it seems harder to get back to work. Boys are slowly getting used to getting up early. Still, can't wait till the next half term! LOL! TTFN!

>>> Unity's Friends With Flair Friday! <<<

This used to be Hip Hop Hangover but has been revamped to Friends with Flair Friday! I'm back again after a 2 month hiatus (due to summer vacation). Here's my contribution:

I do have a lot of luggage tags and decided to turn them into decorative tags instead. They are fun to give away as bookmarks too. Sometimes when I'm free, I do a few and keep them in case they are suddenly needed as gifts. At the same time, they serve well to use up my stash, namely the fibres and trimmings! Stamped images are from August 09 KOTM set. They are coloured using Promarkers.

My 2nd contribution is a card made using images from August 09 store kit set. I absolutely adore this particular set as it has the most unique images. They can only be bought from a store and thankfully, I get them from here.

Thanks for dropping by. Check out Unity blog for more inspiration from the other Friends with Flair gals. Have a great weekend! TTFN!

>>> Growing In Unity - Day 5 <<<

Gosh, it's Day 5 and it's the last day of my showcase of Unity stamps. The week has certainly flown by rather quickly. I certainly had so much fun playing with Unity stamps this week and even more so in my revamped craft space.

For today, I saved the best for the last. I bought a K&Co Flippery set off Ebay a few months back. When it first came out, I wasn't into altered stuff but am now. I lost no time in deciding how I wanted my bracelet to be and here's the outcome of it:

The charms were created using clear shrink plastic. I stamped on one side and coloured on the other. I chose my fav stamp images from Unity. (NB: the birdcage is from Basic Grey).

Here's a closer view of it. (a wee bit difficult to take a photo without the glare from the photos as I had put an epoxy sticker on top of the photo)

That's it for my week! I tried to come up with various way and projects in using Unity stamps. This has certainly been my most fun week. Before I go, I leave with this card.... thanx so much for dropping by and leaving comments. I enjoyed reading them. I'll be picking a winner this weekend to win a Unity single stamp of your choice!

'thx' = thanx.
You know how sometimes we end up with consonants when all the vowels have been used up on an alphabet sticker sheet. Well, it occur to me to use text language to use up all those leftover letters! Stamps used on this card came from August 09 KOTM set.

TTFN!

>>> Growing In Unity - Day 4 <<<

For today, I will be showcasing some a la carte stamps that I had purchased from Unity (which I fell in love with!) I spied a set of hanging frames in my lounge that needed a revamp. The frames were from Ikea and I put them up when I first moved in, using a cut-off sheet from a wallpaper as a picture. They were beginning to look rather dated so one afternoon, took them down and work my magic on them.

The wooden frame was given a lick of paint from Tim Holtz crackled paint. Then it was randomly stamped. Stamped a couple of images from Unity Shine On! set, coloured using Promarkers and then adhered them onto the frame.

The Love Is Everything image complimented this particular frame.

Finally, the Love Is In The Air images added the special touch to it.

Here's an overall look of the hanging frames! I'm glad I've given it a facelift as it was time!

Last nite, I spent some time playing with a recent release Unity stamp set, Bright and Merry Winter Wishes. With Christmas not too long away and knowing how I always somehow run out of Xmas cards, I decided to try and do some cards in advance. Can't say I'm a fan of Xmas cards as I find it rather tedious, replicating them so I do try and vary the designs. I do get bored churning out similar cards umpteen times!

I do like to stay away from traditional colours of Xmas.

Here's another softer approach to it. The Poinsettia comes from Hodge Podge of Happiness set.

I always make Xmas cards for my boys' classmates but instead of cards, I prefer giving them tags. They are far more useful than cards which tend to be thrown away. Here's a couple of prototypes. Made them simple, bearing in mind that these have to be replicated 60 times!

The background was misted with Shimmerz Spritz. Again, did them in different colours, no guessing which goes to a gal/guy!

Thanks for dropping by. Appreciate all your comments. Have a great day! TTFN!

>>> Growing In Unity - Day 3 <<<

It's Day 3 of Growing with Unity and I'm having so much fun playing with my Unity stamps. Having re-arranged and re-organised my craft room (read: more table space), I'm slowly getting back into crafting.

For today, I thought I'll showcase 2 of my fav stamp sets, Confessions, which is basically a scrapbooking set of stamps and Hodge Podge, a stamp set whereby we (Unity addicts) got to choose which stamps we wanted for the set. Here they are:

Confession: I luv Unity

Hodge Podge of Happiness

Since laying my hands on the Confession set, I've been using them a lot on my pages. They simply make fabulous backgrounds. Here's a couple of examples done using them:

I've used some of the images as a background pattern.
(LO created using Scarlet Lime July kit)

A closer view of the LO. The bird comes from the Hodge Podge set.

Another LO using the Confession set (and some images from August store kit set)
(LO created using BackPorch Memories August Solo kit & was created a few weeks back)

Before I go, here's a quick card I created as my hubs' colleague just had a baby gal. Unfortunately, his wife isn't too well so do pray for her. I don't have a lot of baby images but I do have the Little Me stamp set which came in handy:

Patterned papers by Daisy D's Chole Marie and Fancy Pants Splendid collection. Image coloured using Promarkers.

Thanks for dropping by. Remember, all comments will result in a draw for a Unity single stamp set of your choice. TTFN!

>>> Just A Quick Word! <<<

So hubs hands me a few envelopes in the evening and I was wondering where they came from as I knew there was no mail today. Apparently they came on Saturday but he failed to give them to me. Typical! Now one of these envelopes contains the much awaited Mac OS Snow Leopard disk for my Macbook. So naturally I was fuming mad at his forgetfulness as I wondering when my disk would turn up!!! I lost no time in updating my OS and am so pleased with it.

Still haven't found Oliver's lunch bag! Looks like it has done a runner! Not a great start to a new term!!! Sigh! TTFN!

>>> Growing In Unity - Day 2 <<<

For today, I've chosen to play with July KOTM set. A summery set with loads of interesting images. Again I didn't get much chance to play with it so I decided to explore it further today.

My mom's birthday is this Saturday and I wanted to make her something she would remember of her grandsons. She had photos taken with them on our last day in Singapore and since she only sees them once a year, I created this hanging frame for her.

I made use of Heidi Swapp large playing card as the base. All Unity images were stamped onto a white, plain cardstock and then coloured using Promarkers. Project created using Scarlet Lime June kit.

To make the images more interesting, I added a bit of sticklers to give it a little sparkle.

I doubt it will reach her on time but hey, better late than never! Thanks for dropping by! TTFN!

>>> School starts! <<<

The boys started school today and I started work as well! We all got up nice and early and managed to get out of the house in good time. It's Zac's last year in Infants. Gosh, still remember the time he first started out at Reception and now he's the oldest group at Infants! Time do fly!

Day went well apart from Oliver losing his lunch bag! God knows how as he remembered his teacher passing him his lunch bag and after that, it simply disappeared! Thank goodness it's an old bag but I'm mighty peeved with him as he's forever losing his personal stuff! Let's see if we ever do get it back otherwise he can jolly well bring a plastic bag to school instead!

Jetlag hit me hard in the evening especially after dinner. Felt this overwhelming sense of tiredness and had to retreat to my bed for a rest. The next time I knew it was already midnite when I woke up! Sheesh! I had plan to do some scrapping in the nite. It's nearly a week since we've been back and I'm still suffering from it. Usually I don't go to bed till 2ish in the morning!

Back to routine now! Will miss having the boys around as we had a great time together during the hols! So when's the next half term..... TTFN!

>>> Growing In Unity - Day 1 <<<

Way back in March, I signed up for this event as I had just discovered Unity stamps and wanted the opportunity to showcase stamps that I had bought. Fast forward the months and a huge collection of Unity stamps, it's now my turn this week!

I received my August KOTM set while on vacation in Singapore and as a result, haven't played with it yet. Hence, I decided to take a closer look and will highlight images from this particular set today.

This set is packed with such fun images.

I had a look at the SCS Unity forum and combined my card with Sep KOTM challenge which was to use the following colours: green, orange, purple and black. Here's my effort:

The background was sponged using Tim Holtz distressed inkpads in Marmalade and Dusty Concord. It was then spritzed with water to give it a mottled effect. It's actually more orangy than yellow in real life.

Thanks for dropping by and leaving comments. At the end of the week, I'll be drawing a winner to win a free Unity single stamp of your choice! TTFN!

>>> It's Done! <<<

The craft room that is! I've finally sorted and re-organised my stash space, re-packed all used kits and re-arranged everything accordingly to my needs. I will need to clear out some old scrapping magazines as I don't touch them anymore. There's still a bit more clearing up to be done but for now, I'm glad the bulk has been achieved!

Brought the boys to get new school shoes. Both their feet have grown a size bigger. The store was crowded but it was fast moving, thank god for that. Went to Tesco to replenish the house with food. Having been so long away, it was kinda empty. Spent a bomb but it will drop once we get back to routine.

At the moment, feeling a tinge of sadness that the summer holidays have come to an end. I had such a great time (made more enjoyable being away from here. Heard the weather during August was a complete wash-out!) Made new friends, caught up with old ones and ate to my heart's content. Well, as they say, all good things must come to an end... c'est la vie! TTFN!

>>> The Weekend! <<<

My last summer weekend before school and work starts on Monday. Gosh, can't believe that the holidays simply flew by. It wasn't so long ago that I was taking a flight home and now I'm back again, getting ready for another school term. Time is passing by so quickly that it won't be long before Christmas is here.

Boys had violin workshop today and kinda jolted them into playing again. They had a 2 week hiatus from practice. As for me, thankfully re-sorted the wardrobes so the clothes are now nicely stacked according to where I want them. Chucked out some clothes too. Unpacked the 7 luggage too and cleared all the clothes/stuff. Bravely tackled my craft room today as well. Took out everything from the cubicles and started to re-arrange them to my scrapping needs. Seriously, I salut my hubs for making a brave attempt to clear my stash (I kinda left it in a right mess), installing the new unit and then putting them away nicely for me. Re-sorted all the papers and embellishment accordingly and threw out a lot of rubbish. It's such a slow and tedious process but I'm getting there slowly. As the unit is against the radiator, I have to make sure that my stamps are no where near those cubicles. Unfortunately that is the only wall long enough for the shelving unit.

Gonna call it a day... still suffering from slight jetlag and can't stay up late as I used to... TTFN!

>>> 2nd Day! <<<

I was awake from 2ish in the morning. Not surprising since I was in bed from 4pm onwards. So spent the next few hours tossing and turning about till the kids woke up at 6ish! Left the suitcases alone as I needed to sort the boys' wardrobe. Hubs got them a new one as they had outgrown theirs. It was such a tedious task as clothes weren't arranged according to how I wanted plus toys were thrown in as well. Hence, a major tidy up began. I will also need Hubs to re-arrange the drawers too as they are currently way too high, even for me. He seriously need to consider that only him at the moment stands at 6 ft, the rest, wayyyy below!

Will need to give the boys each a black bag and get them to chuck out toys they no longer play. They've got far too much and not enough space for them.

Roll on tomorrow as it's my wardrobe that needs clearing out. I've got loads of clothes, most of them unworn for years. Time to de-clutter. Hubs did his part so it's my turn. Trouble is I'm such a hoarder and a sentimentalist. It's gonna be real hard for me to throw stuff out! Sigh! TTFN!

>>> Back In The UK! <<<

So we are back home! I'm totally shattered and have not slept for a good 17 hrs. I can't sleep on planes so I ended up watching movies after movies e.g. The Proposal, Wolverine, 17 Again etc. Must have watched at least 5 movies in all. Hands up to Emirates in-flight entertainment system. It kept the boys busy too.

The boys on their DS while waiting at Dubai airport. Zac sitting on a stroller (he just woke up and wasn't in any mood to walk) that was found around the airport.

Being entertained by the in-flight system. Loads of movies, music and game channels.

Reached Birmingham airport and it was really crowded. However, I breezed through customs being a foreigner (that lane happens to be rather free) while hubs and boys had to queue for a while. Went to wait for the bags and was shocked to find that they charged £1 for a trolley (and you had no course of refund)! What the heck! Gosh, I just can't believe they did it! Dubai airport was offering free strollers and you could find them easily in the airport! If Birmingham airport really wanted to raise funds, that was a darn cheapskate way of doing it! We had no choice but to get one as we had 7 luggage. Had to get the boys to roll their own!

Came home to a spic and span house. Hubs had totally re-decorated the bedrooms. Swapped bedrooms and got new wardrobes. He even got me the new shelves I wanted from Ikea and it came with a table. Bless him! I had wanted to make the craft room, a study room as well as the boys now need a space to do their homework.

I saw this cubicle unit and it came with a table and wanted it for the craft room. So hubs got it and installed it in my craft room. How he managed to wade through tons of mess and stored them in is beyond comprehension but gotta luv him for it. Now I've got to re-sort the cubicles according to my crafting needs. Good time to de-clutter too.

Gonna be real busy this week. Need to unpack 7 luggage, re-sort the wardrobes as MIL helped Hubs to sort the boys clothings but certainly not to my liking. Think I'm off to bed now... head's throbbing due to lack of sleep. TTFN!