~ Journal Your Christmas 2010: Day 16 ~

A lot happened today! First, postie brought me 2 parcels, my Studio Calico kit & Unity stamps. My SB kit contained more than what I expected... August and December kits and 2 add-ons, courtesy of Studio Calico (largely due to Aug kit which caused a bit of delivery problems and therefore they compensated me with extra kits, which is very generous of them!) Certainly felt like Christmas came early!!! 

Then it snowed rather heavily again in the afternoon. I think I had enough of snow now as it's causing more problems than anything else. This country is so unprepared for snow that everything comes to a standstill and that is the annoying bit. We've got some travelling plans ahead and I daren't book anything in case the roads are treacherous or planes can't take off or the trains can't function etc., all due to the snow!!! Sigh!

So I decided to focus my page on the snow! We have never had that much snow in December!!!

Not sure which paper it is but the stitched snowflake is from Robyn Meierotto, stitched journal & flourish is from Katie Pertiet, journaling ink blots is from Carina Gardner, Xmas word transfers from Anna Aspens.

TTFN!

~ Journal Your Christmas 2010: Day 15 ~

Day 15 focus on the Xmas lunch I had with my colleagues!

Paper by Celeste Knight and the other elements by Katie Pertiet.

TTFN!

~ Journal Your Christmas 2010: Day 14 ~

Day 14 is about a Xmas gift I will be receiving shortly from my generous brother! What can I say, he's the best bro ever!

Page LO made using Karen Funk Christmas Joy kit. Background brushes & layered papers from Katie Pertiet. 

Been hankering after the iPhone 4 due to the improved camera and video features as I now take photos/videos using my iPhone these days! The Hipstamatic app is one of my favs! And best of all, it's a 32 GB phone as my current 16 GB is way too small for me. I'm constantly deleting photos and still can't find enough space on it! So what will I do with my 3Gs? My boys are already waiting to lay their hands on it! I've got a spare PAYG sim card to use! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 289 ~

Today's challenge is Peek-A-Boo. Basically, the challenge is to create 2 windows on the card - they can be of any shape or size, as long as you can see something on the inside peeking out.  Perhaps it will be patterned paper or a stamped image that you can see.  Whatever you decide will work as long as you have 2 windows!

Have to say, I struggled with this as I don't do window cards but eventually came up with this card: 

Paper - unsure which digi artist at the moment!

The inside of the card. Digi paper from Karen Funk Christmas Magic. Sentiments from Unity.

TTFN!

~ Journal Your Christmas 2010: Day 12 ~

The boys had another violin concert today. This time, it's from their Suzuki workshops that they attend on alternate Saturdays and today, they performed a Christmas concert at a church. It went well although it got progressively colder and colder as the concert went on! 

Background page from R Meierotto Holly Jolly collection. The rest of the elements came from Katie Pertiert (luv her digi stuff!)

The boys have one more concert to perform and a grading exam to take before they can relax for the hols! They are probably used to it by now! TTFN!

~ Journal Your Christmas 2010: Day 10 ~

Day 10 is about shopping. Now I'm not exactly following the prompts but I do use them for when needed. Today, I did try to do a bit of shopping but got nowhere. The stuff I wanted wasn't in stock and the dress I wanted wasn't in my size. Hence, I had to turn to the net where I did manage to get what I want! Looks like it's the way forward to shopping from now onwards! 

Page LO created using Jen Allyson Vintage Finding kit. Layered frame & stitches by K Pertiert.

Picture taken off Jane Norman's site. Bought this dress for a Xmas party coming up. I generally hate shopping for clothes and try to make it as quick as possible. So when I found this dress and tried it, it fit but just needed a size smaller and the store was out of stock of the smaller size. So a quick call to another store found one but another check on the net found the same dress to be sold at a 20% discount which the store didn't offer!!! So of course I went for the online purchase and even after adding post and packaging, still came up cheaper than going to the store (which I will have to add petrol and parking charges!) As for the other stuff, got them online and will be going to the store to collect next week! TTFN!

~ journal Your Christmas 2010: Day 9 ~

It's Day 9 and I've documented the boys' violin lessons in school. This is the first & last time they are together in the same school (the older one leaves in July next year). As luck would have it, they are in the same violin group too. It certainly helped with the transition period for the wee one as he has someone in the school he can relate to.

Photo taken with the Hipstamatic app. Page layout created using Jen Allyson's Vintage Finding kit. Pear image from Katie Pertiert's Le Poirier element pack and ticket from K Pertiert's Winter ticket.

TTFN!

~ Journal Your Christmas 2010: Day 8 ~

Day 8 is about Christmas cards that I've been making since the start of this year. I do give out a lot and had to resort to commercial ones in the past but this year, I made a vow to give out handmade ones solely. So each month, I made about 8 Christmas cards although I faltered during the summer months and thereafter! However, it appeared I made enough so am quite pleased! However, I had to get a box of 30 commercial ones for my boys as they didn't want me to make any for them. Oh well, save me a lot of time! Here's my page to commemorate my achievement!

Base page from Jen Allyson Vintage Findings collection. Not sure where those frames are from but other elements from Katie Pertiet.

TTFN!

~ Journal Your Christmas 2010: Day 7 ~

The boys attend a Strings Orchestra in their school every Tuesday and today they had a concert for parents.  So my page today is dedicated to them:

Papers by Elle's Studio, postage frame & Santa's card is from Robyn Meierotto, xmas tree is from Echo Park Dashes Through The Snow & scalloped journaling circle is from Elle's Studio.

This concert marks the first of many to come. They have a couple more to perform as well as busking in Solihull Town Centre to raise funds for Christian Aid. Well, at least I know what will go into my pages! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 282 ~

This week, we are sponsored by E.A.D Designs:

The challenge today is to include a minimum of 4 stickers. I received a sheet of cute owls and this is how my card looks like:

I mounted the owl stickers on a piece of cardstock and cut it out and foam back it onto the burlap. Same for the sentiment. Not usually a sticker user but these owls were just too cute for words!

Not long before the term ends and there's so much to do! But the best part is having friends/brother over from China and Singapore later this month! Nothing like good friends/family member to cheer you up! TTFN!

~ Journal Your Christmas 2010: Day 6 ~

Day 6 is about the boys' Xmas list:

Kit by Jen Allyson Merry Little Christmas collection. Santa's list by Robin Meierotto.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the boys to do it on the card and therefore had to add onto it later. TTFN!

~ Journal Your Christmas 2010: Day 5 ~

It's day 5 and today we went for our first Christmas meet-up with friends. The start I would say as we have more scheduled this month! Another busy day again, violin lessons for the boys in the afternoon and then a Christmas party for them, organised by their Beavers/Cubs group. Sheesh, they seem to have better social life than me!

Anyway, here's my page: 

Page done using a kit collection by Karen Funk's Christmas Magic. 'Jolly' word by Katie Pertiet. 

TTFN!

~ Journal Your Christmas 2010: Day 4 ~

It's Saturday today and the boys insisted we put up the Christmas tree and therefore, this was the focus of my page. It was also a very busy day too, a violin workshop and friends coming over for dinner (both of which I had no photos to show for!) Here's my page:

Paper's from Elle's Studio, torn photo base from Liv.E Designs and butterfly from Karla Dudley.

Have to say, doing these pages digitally have enabled me to create rather quickly as I don't have to print the photos out. I tend to print out my own photos and I would wait to fill up an A4 page of photos instead of just printing out one photo. And more importantly, it justify the cost of buying digi products! :) TTFN!

~ Journal Your Christmas 2010: Day 3 ~

Day 3's page focus on my little boy at his nan's, playing with his favourite toy at the moment... some yucky stuff that I insist he doesn't bring home! Here's the page: 

Paper from Elle's Studio while the elements are from Karen Funk's Christmas Magic collection. 'Winter' definition is from Katie Pertiet. 

TTFN!

~ Journal Your Christmas 2010: Day 2 ~

For Day 2, I focus on the Christmas Fayre that I had to organise in the Infant School. Although, my son is no longer in the school, I'm still retained as a Secretary of the PTA. So my page is about the Fayre. My boys came to help me .... spend money!

Kit collection is from Echo Park's All I Want For Christmas. 

Had fun putting this page together. TTFN!

~ Journal Your Christmas 2010: Day 1 ~

I took part last year but sadly, never finished it. This year, having been so busy lately, I wasn't sure if it was worth doing as time is certainly not on my side. However, I've been leaning towards digital products lately and I decided to do a digital album instead. It's much faster putting together a digital page as opposed to scrapping one! Well, I decided to give it a try and within half an hour, managed to whip out 3 pages!!! Let me just emphasise that I don't normally do digi pages and therefore, this is merely an amateurish effort! However, I do want to document my memories and therefore, however way I do it, as long as I can look back in future, I'm happy!

All albums need a cover so here's mine: 

I decided to do a 6x6 page as it's easier to print out if I so desire a tactile album! The page was created using Echo Park's Sleigh Ride digital collection.

Then I created an introduction page: 

Page is from Echo Park's Sleigh Ride digi collection. The snowman is an element from Cosmo Cricket Holly Jolly collection (yup, they have turn their papers/embellishment into digi images too).

Finally, my Day 1 page: 

Background is from EP's Sleigh Ride while the elements are from EP's Dashes Through The Snow.

I've not exactly followed Shimelle's prompts but instead chose to document my daily life in the month of December. Unless there isn't anything exciting done that day, I might just take my cue from the daily prompts. 

Scrapping digitally will never replace what I used to do before. I still like to cut papers, stamp and make a page. Unfortunately, when I can't, then coming up with a page within 10 mins might just satisfy the creative juice. TTFN!

~ Banana Frog Hop ~

Welcome to the Banana Frog Blog Hop! Hopefully you're enjoying the hops so far.

The theme for this month's hop is on Christmas, very appropriate as Christmas is only a few weeks away. Currently, I'm in the midst of making Christmas tags as I tend to put these together with the Christmas cards and are given away to close friends/relatives. Here's a couple that I've done:

The Christmas tree came from Winter Wonderland set.

The baubles are from Christmas Elegance set.

To ensure mass production, the tags were coloured using Tim Holtz inkpads, dry-embossed and sprayed with a bit of glimmer mist. Then a background layer was laid on and then the stamped image. The back of the tags were then stamped with a Christmas sentiment. 

Your next hop is Annlouise. Have fun hopping and if you fancy winning a Banana Frog stamp set of your choice, just leave a comment! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 275 ~

This week we are sponsored by Pixie Petals, an Etsy site selling bits and bobs. It's closed at the moment but will re-open shortly. 

Today's challenge is to take inspiration from this book cover:

Here's my card. I took inspiration from the layout of the cover.

The doily, crochet flower and ribbon were kindly sponsored by Pixie Petals. 

Thanks for dropping by! Have a great day! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 268 ~

If you have come from Gloria's blog, WELCOME! 


This is DAY THREE of the 365 Cards Vintage Love Blog Hop! Here is how it works:

Each DT Member has included one specific item, design element, or technique on her card, and you will have to visit each DT blog to find out what it is. At the end of the week, Saturday's challenge will be a Card Recipe, and you must use those 10 items on your card. You will need to blog hop all week to collect the 10 items. (There is no item for Saturday...the challenge is the recipe card.)

On Sunday you visited the 5 Sketch Team blogs and got 5 of the items. If you missed that part of the hop, go HERE at Pam's blog to begin. Starting this week, you will hop to one Challenge Team blog each day to get the rest of the items. Remember, you must leave a comment on each of the DT blogs during the week to be entered into the drawing!

There are 3 prizes to be won this week, and there are 3 different ways to win.

1) The first is the usual way - just participate in the daily challenges and earn up to 7 chances to win the random drawing. For example, on Sunday you must make a vintage card using the sketch. For today...well read below to see what you must do for today! For the rest of the week the Challenge Team will tell you the daily challenge and give you your recipe item for Saturday.

2) The second way to win is to leave a comment on each of the designer's blogs - on their blog hop posts (but read carefully, you may have to answer a specific question to qualify). Pam will choose a winner from all the comments on the blogs for the week. Some DT members may also be offering a prize! So READ CAREFULLY!

3) The third way to win is to participate in the Card Recipe challenge at the end of the week. Meaning, the Saturday challenge counts once for the Daily Challenge and once for the special Recipe Challenge!

For complete details, visit the 365 Cards Extra Blog.

Hope you have enjoyed your hops so far and have been collecting items along the way. Well, it's Tuesday and there is another item to collect. Let's see if you can guess it correctly! Here's my card:

 A special thanks to Gloria for supplying the materials of the card! Incidentally, she's on the DT of Graphic 45 and hence, these delicious goodies! I absolutely adore Graphic 45 papers and I had so much fun playing with them. But equally more fun is playing with my stamps! Did you guess it? Yup, today's item focus on 'stamping' and it has to be included in the card. 

I just had to do another card and here's the 2nd one: 

Here, the stamping is a little subtle but still there! Luv those vintage ladies which I cut out from the patterned paper. The stamped images are from Unity.

As you know, you have 3 chances to win a prize and one of them is to leave a comment here. But before  you do it, here's a question for you... what type of stamps tickle your fancy? Vintage, contemporary, cartoony etc. Feel free to name them if you want! For me, any kind!!! As long as I like the image, it doesn't matter which type. I've a fetish for stamps!

Thanks for dropping by and have a great week hopping! Your next hop is Kim. Don't forget to check in on her tomorrow to see what she has to offer! TTFN!

~ On Display: Banana Frog! ~

It was my turn to blog on Banana Frog and I created some Christmas labels. I use them a lot when wrapping up presents and I loath to buy them when I can create them easily with my supplies. This time, I made use of some digital papers from Elle's Studio. Here are my labels: 

Stamped image from It's Christmas, Deer set. 

Stamped image from Winter Wonderland set and coloured using Copics.

Stamped image from It's Christmas, Deer set, sprinkled with sticklers.

Luv the thought of being able to create different types of labels for different people. My boys will definitely have their own labels to distinguish between their presents! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 261 ~

This week we are sponsored by Wink Wink Ink Stamps.

Today's challenge is "One Stands Alone". Here are the requirements: 

1. You must use at least one stamp (digi or rubber)

2. You must add at least 2 embellishments that are also that color

3. NO patterned paper

Here's my card: 

The digital image is from Wink Wink Ink and coloured using Copic and sprinkled with sticklers. Ribbon and sticklers made up the 2 embellishment. Can't say it was an easy challenge seeing that no patterned paper can be used!

And 365 Cards is having an interesting week coming up .... check out the blinkie:

Until then... TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 254 ~

This week we are sponsored by Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps:

Today's challenge is all about 'Wishes'. We are supposed to let select one of our greatest wish and let it inspire our card. Here's mine:

My wish is for my parents to be nearby but unfortunately they are thousand of miles away! Here, I managed to find a digi paper (by Spencer of Digital House Design) of double decker buses signifying London. And the sentiment was typed out. The bird image is from Prickly Pear, coloured using Copic markers.

On the non- creative side, started a First Aid course today, required by my job. It's a 3 day intensive course (held over 3 weeks) that finishes with a practical exam! Gosh, we covered so much topics today and there's so much to memorised! Biggest fear is failing the exam as it's a practical exam and one needs to know what to do in a given situation. Looks like major revision is required over the next few weeks! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 247 ~

Today's challenge is entitled 'loud and clear'! The challenge is to use large letter or a really big sentiment to fill at least half the card. Here's my card: 

Sentiment is from Unity. 

TTFN!

~ Christmas Cards All Year 'Round: November's Challenge ~

November's challenge is to have tree and ribbon on the card. Here's my card:

Patterned paper from Basic Grey. Merry bingo card is a digi image from Lettering Delights. The stamped tree image is from Unity. And those bells do jingle!

TTFN!