~ 365 Cards: Day 209 ~

This week we are sponsored by Paper Pretties. 

Today's challenge is to use Three Shades of Purple on the card. Here's my card: 

Image is from Paper Pretties, coloured using copic markers.

TTFN!

~ Pink Reptile Designs: Friends Will Be Friends ~

Mirjam recently released this kit, Friend Will Be Friends, on Zig Zag Scrap but I got a chance to play with it earlier in the year as this kit was featured on Artisan Notebook in July this year. Yup, my page was also in that digital magazine. 

Here's my page: 

Photo of my best friends. I cherish my moments with these gals! 

TTFN!

~ Val C. Designs & BeeDee Design: Self Confidence ~

Val did a collaboration with BeeDee Design and came up with this wonderful kit called Self Confidence, available at Zig Zag Scrap. Talk about a kit full of digi goodies! 

This is a bundle. They are also available separately.

Here's my page: 

I had so much fun with this kit. Lots of fun elements, totally up my street! TTFN!

~ Oscraps Collaboration: Novel ~

A little behind my posting but I've been so busy since work started. Anyway, got a chance to play with this collaboration kit by the Oscraps designers called Novel. 

Here's my page: 

Fun kit to play with! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 202 ~

Today's challenge is about 'White Space' and is based on this sketch: 

Here's my card: 

Not generally good on white space but I coped! TTFN!

~ Paislee Press & Leora Sanford Designs: Hello My Name Is ~

Recently had a chance to play with this collaboration kit by two designers, Paislee Press & Leora Sanford, available at Oscraps, called 'Hello My Name Is' kit. I do have a stamp with that particular phrase and it was one of my favourite stamps so I was quite happy to see a kit with that phrase. 

It also comes with Journal Cards, great for those doing Project album as you can print it out. 

Here's my page that I did with this kit: 

I took tons of photos with this adorable, little boy. You'll be seeing a lot more of him in my pages! TTFN!

~ RIP Kimmy ~

I just learnt on FB that a friend I knew passed away suddenly from cancer. 

Kimmy Sonksen

(pic taken from her blog)

I knew her from UKScrappers. When she set up her store, I became one of her Design Team members. She even created a forum and I was part of it and had a lot of fun. The main event was doing a Circle Journal (CJ) involving ten members. It involves passing a book to each member of the group and each one fill it in with creative works. And the best part, all of us received our journals back (they do get lost sometimes). I managed to have 2 CJs done and both came back with some fabulous art work! She was an amazing scrapper and cardmaker and my only regret was that I never met her face to face. 

It's terrible when cancer takes away someone you know and worst, suddenly too! She was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer 3 weeks ago and passed away on the 11th. My condolences goes to her partner and her family. Incidentally, the scrapping community have set up a donation to Cancer Research in honour of her. Check it out here. RIP Kimmy. You will be missed! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 195 ~

Today's challenge is called 'Fringe Binge', which is to load the card with fringe. Here's mine: 

Played with my yarn. I still have a bagful and I do use them! TTFN!

~ GIS: Trendiest Shape - Hexagon ~

The trendiest shape at the moment is hexagon, well, at least in the digi world. Lots of kits coming out with this particular shape.  Here's an article about it as seen here. 

I had a chance to play with such shape and luv it!

Supplies:
Ju Kniepp Designs: Old Sweet Times
Crystal Livesay: Hex Shapes V2
Karen Funk: Simple Stitches
Anna Aspnes: Precious Word Art No1, Achieve Word Art No1
Fonts: Tangerine & Tangie AJF Oyster

My boys got a chance to see the Olympic Torch up close and of course, I had to document it. TTFN!

~ Blah Blah... ~

Now that the Paralympics are over, I'm kinda sad. It's my first time seeing it and I had enjoyed the various sports and it certainly taught me a lot about the event. I was glad they show the classification system in swimming and also in the various sports. It helped me to understand the event better. It goes to show that despite certain mobility limitations, these athletes were not deterred and nothing is impossible if one put his/her mind to it! I was so full of admiration for these athletes. 

I'm slowly getting back on my feet. I suffered from jet lag the first week. I was thoroughly knackered by 9pm and I'm usually a nite owl!!! Hardly touched my computer too and as a result, I'm now trying to catch up on my assignments that are soon to be due! 

As for my so-called craft corner, I need to re-organise my stash. It's just finding the time as I'm full of appointments this week as well as the weekend! And I'm not even working full time!!! TTFN!

~ GIS: Back To School Photos ~

At this time of the year, it's common to photograph kids going back to school. I always do it. Well, here's an article dedicating to Back To School pages as seen here. 

Supplies:
Anna Aspnes: Artsy Template No62, ArtPlay Palette Concerto
Cinzia Designs: Ready To Learn
One Little Bird: Bird Seeds V1 UK
Elise's Pieces & Chelle's Creations: In Harmony
Font: Follow You Into The World

I chose to focus on my two boys whereby they were in the same school together for the first time. Their Infants and Juniors schools are separated. Well, the wee one entered the Junior school at Year 3 while the older one was in his final year at Year 6. It was great to bring the boys to the same school and see them both on the same school ground. It was also great that the older one could guide his younger brother around school. 

My page is peppered with musical images too as both of them have violin lessons in school too and both are in the same music group as well. So it was easier for me to attend their lessons. I kinda miss that school year. TTFN!

~ GIS: Inspired By Infographics ~

This article recently came out on Get It Scrapped site as seen here. Infographic combines images and numbers to give an informed view about a certain topic. It's interesting to see how it can be used in scrapbooking. Here's my take on it: 

Supplies:
Ju Kniepp Designs & Tangie Baxter: Creative Felicity
Anna Aspnes: 12x12 Sand Scratched Overlays No1, Flutterby Foto Blendz No3
Tangie Baxter: Cart Set 32 Color Wheel, AJC11 Parcel 30
Fonts: Legion Slab, Duval Outline & Larger Mime

I chose to use colours to portray moods and how various colours can affect moods. Hence, the info about how a certain colour evoke a certain mood. Then I put myself in red as that is my favourite colour. I had fun doing this page. My most colourful page to date. TTFN!

~ Maya de Groot: Zen And The Art Of Steam Machines ~

I luv this designer's products! I find them so easy to use. She came out with this amazing kit entitled 'Zen and the Art of Steam Machines', available at Oscraps.

It is packed full of mixed media goodies and so fun to play with. Here's my art journal: 

TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 188 ~

Getting back to normal routine and trying to settle down after being a month away. Today's challenge is  '21st Century', a look at new trends and technologies in the past 12 years. For me, only one person changed my life for the better and brought the world closer and smaller, may I add! I present Steve Job!

A tongue-in-cheek look at all the modcons that he came out notably the iPhone. Thanks to him, I can chat with my parents, relatives and friends easily and free (thanks to Whatsapp & Wifi!) My parents are able to see their grandkids more often via FaceTime.  Steve Job's face is actually made up of all the modcon that he thought of e.g. iPhone, iPods, iTouch, Macbooks etc. TTFN!

~ I'm Back! ~

in the UK and grappling with daily routine! Arrived on Sun early morning at 7.25am at Manchester Airport. Didn't realised you had to pay to use a trolley which I did but guess what, the trolley wouldn't come out despite putting a £1 in the machine! And there was a uniformed fat bloke sitting at the end of the trolley. He merely shrugged his shoulders! I wasn't the one who had the problem as others too struggled with the trolleys too and all he did was to sit there and looked on! Talk about a bloody wasted space! I refused to waste another pound so had to dragged my luggage through the doors. Hubby had to choose this time to go to the toilet so I had to eventually call him to see where he was! I did tell him to come at 8am but he thought he had time (my plane had arrived a good half hour earlier).

It was great to see the boys although they were more interested in their new laptops that their granddad had bought them for their birthdays! Not surprising, with 3 laptops to cart back (including my own), no wonder I had to leave a lot of stuff behind. I had to unload another 7 kg at Changi Airport as my luggage was still too heavy. Eventually, they let me off with 31 kg! Anyway, I'm due to collect them next week when my bro's girlfriend arrives in London! Yay!

We spent the day out as a family, had a tim sum lunch and the boys went to HMV to spent some money which their grandma had given them (not all as the majority will go into their banks. My parents are very generous when it come to their grandchildren ... the only ones that live very far from them!) The boys have found a new PS3 game called Skylander and been buying toys that can be played in the game! So that's what they have been collecting lately!

Can't say the house is spotless. Hubby turned my craft room into a bedroom for my youngest, not that I mind as I don't physically craft anymore. He moved all the stuff into the living room. He somehow managed to create a corner with storage for me. Now I've to re-sort everything and put them where I wanted. Tedious!

Clothes are laundered but not folded so guess who has to do them! Cups are badly stained with tea (my pet hate!) so guess who will have to scrubbed them clean. How on earth can anyone drink from a dirty cup is beyond comprehension. The pantry is a mess! That's what you get when you leave a man in charge of the house for 4 weeks! It would take me a good while to get the house in order. 

In the meantime, I'm grappling with jetlag and lack of sleep! I realised as you get older, sleep is important and not being able to sleep on a 15 hour flight does take a toll on the body. I'm trying to keep to the time schedule i.e. not sneaking any afternoon nap so as not to screw my body clock! I'll be so glad when this week is over! TTFN!

~ Goodbye ~

Getting ready to leave for the airport. Not surprising, luggage is overweight. Praying they will somehow get through! An Emirates flight would have solve that, given their generous 30kg!

I leave with today's weather

It is sweltering today! TTFN!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

~ Last Nite! ~

... in Singapore. Wow! This month has gone way too quickly for my liking. This week has been a whirlwind, meeting up with friends, relatives, shopping etc. 

I'm so glad to be able to go to a computer fair yesterday. I had certain items that I wanted to buy and there was an offer on them! First, I was searching for a network storage, one that could store stuff from PC and Mac. Found a Western Digital My Book Live, like a Personal Cloud Storage, akin to Dropbox (but minus any subscription fees as it resides in your own home). Based on the description it caters to both PC and Mac as well as Apple products such as iPad, iPhone, iTouch etc. And it works wirelessly too. OMG! Exactly what I wanted! So I got a 3TB set. I had my sight set on Apple's Time Capsule but it comes with a router and that would have interfered with my broadband as the latter is both a router & modem too. This storage is on it own and you connect using an Ethernet cable. Perfect for my house setting. I'm so looking forward to setting it up in my home when I get back!

Another item I bought is WD My Passport external hard disk. A 1TB cost a bomb in the UK and I got it for a song at the fair! One can never get enough of EHD especially when you have tons of photos and digi files! Electronic devices can fail and one should always triple backup just in case!!! Trust me to get excited over my geeky purchases!

And I got a new handbag from Charles & Keith (a local shoe and handbag store. Apparently Louis Vuitton has a stake in it)! I was merely walking past the store, trying not to go in when suddenly, this particular bag caught my eye! Had to take a look and fell in love with it. It's something I've been looking for and I found it! Luv accidental purchase!

Today, I met up with the 4 gals from the Joy Luck Club (that's what we call ourselves). Finally, all of us were able to meet up. We had a jolly good time! We had a tim sum breakfast. Then headed to Jaz's place to convene and natter and then off to town to wander about. Of course, we had to take photos in between and when you want all 5 gals in the photo, you find innovative ways of capturing ourselves! We had such a laugh!

Presenting the Joy Luck Club gals! Altered this photo using an Aviary app.

Oh and if you find me in the same outfit, that's because I have very limited wardrobe. I brought only essentials as my luggage coming out was filled with items for a friend's baby! Good as I can now fill it with stuff that I bought here! 

Now that all of us are contactable via Whatsapp, we are going to get even closer!

Got home and did the most sensible thing... pack! Yup, got my stuff together and separate them in 2 piles... need to bring back and able to leave behind for my bro to bring over! Have to be mindful of the luggage weight restriction. I'll find out tomorrow how heavy they are when everything has gone in! 

I'm glad I had the chance to be here. Yes, I was on my own but no, I wasn't lonely. Yes, I did miss my boys but no, I don't regret leaving them with their dad (good they had a father and son bonding). It's gonna be sad leaving here especially the food! I think I ate all that I wanted to eat especially this: 

Chilli crabs! Yum!

Well, one more day to eat ...  what shall I have? TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 181 ~

This week's challenge is sponsored by DRS Designs: 

I chose this particular image as I liked it. Not that I'm a lover of this snack:

Background from Anna Aspnes' ArtPlay Palette Magic kit. 

TTFN!

~ Last Week! ~

... in Singapore. Last week was terrible as I was suffering from diarrhoea after my trip in Shanghai. Something about the water there just doesn't sit well with me. It was enough to prevent me from eating properly and I didn't fancied going out at all. However, I did manage to meet up with various group of friends during the weekend and had a fun time clubbing on Saturday night (can't remember the last time I went to a club...years ago!)

Luv these gals!

This gal brought me to new places in Singapore. A long time friend! 

New friends!

I'm grateful my friends made time to meet up with me despite their busy schedules. I'll definitely miss them when I leave this country! TTFN!

~ Easy Scrapbook Pages: August 2012 ~

This came out on Easy Scrapbook Pages which can be seen here. 

Supplies:
Ju Kniepp Designs: Easy & Breezy, House Party August Borders1, Love Is A Verb
Karen Funk: Simple Stitches
Font: Writing Stuff

This LO came about rather quickly which was a good thing as I was so pressed for time then. Instructions are given on the EIS site. TTFN!

~ Pink Reptile Designs: Twiddle Twiddle ~

Mirjam, designer of Pink Reptile Designs came up with this kit called Twiddle Twiddle, available at Zig Zag Scrap. Such a fun kit: 

Here's my LO: 

Just being silly and having a fun pose!

The irony, got a DSLR yet I rely so much on my iPhone camera which sometimes do not take sharp photos, mostly blurry ones! However, doesn't bother me one bit. Memory captured so I do try and scrap it as best as I can!

Just catching up on posts hence the amount of posts suddenly! TTFN!

~ Sketchbook 365: September 2012 Challenge ~

Over at Sketchbook 365, a sketch challenge site, here's September's challenge: 

Here's my LO: 

Supplies:
Anna Aspnes: ArtPlay Palette Epic, Distressed Dates No1, Distressed Months No2, Foto Wallets No1Ju Kniepp Designs & Honey Designs: Photo BoothFonts: KG Sweet N Sassy & Lemondrops

You do stand to win a prize from Stamp Attic. Check the blog for more details. Closing date is 20th Sept 2012. Have fun. TTFN!

~ Charlize Creations: Be Yourself ~

Recently played with a new kit from Charlize Creations entitled Be Yourself, which is available at Oscraps. 

I adore the colours in this kit and came up with this LO. Perfect kit for boys: 

Took this photo of my boys just before I left UK. The only time I got them to smile (they were probably thankful I won't be around to nag at them). 

TTFN!

~ GIS: Ideas Using Machines In Flight On Pages ~

This article came out recently and can be seen here. Here's my LO:

Supplies: Anna Aspnes: Skinny Lined Overlays No2, Warm Glows No1, ArtPlay Palette Ablaze, Find My Way Overlays No1, Magic Sprinklez No2, ArtPlay Palette H2O, ArtPlay Palette Jardinier; Julianna Kniepp: Hello Beautiful, So Sweet; Webster Pages: Paris Couture; Dido Designs: Fly Like A Bird; Fonts: Pineapple Delight, Border Line & Lauren Script

Had a fun time creating this LO. I would seriously love to go up an air balloon but my fear of heights might just prevent me. It's too open for my liking! TTFN!

~ I'm Back ~

in Singapore. After a boring 5 hour flight, finally got back to Singapore (mental note: never take China Eastern again). The plane even left Shanghai late, a good 45 mins late, like I need any more delays! Thank goodness for my Kindle on my iPhone. 

Can't say I did any sightseeing in Shanghai as this is my 3rd trip! My main aim was to see my best friend's babe, spend time with her and to do a bit of shopping. I bought what I wanted (bulk was done online and it was cheaper) and I was satisfied! The weather was way too hot to do any sightseeing. Couldn't wait to go back each time I was out just so I could cool down. Let's just say the air conditioning unit was on throughout the day!

Shanghai is still the same except more traffic on the road. In fact, if the government isn't careful, they will be heading for a perpetual traffic jam scenario, akin to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. That would be a major nightmare! As for the driving system, it was very erratic! I'm just thankful that my friend has a driver to chauffeur her around as seriously, unless you have guts, you wouldn't want to be driving in China. Many a times I had to close my eyes due to near misses and not to gasp too loudly! 

Internet access to certain sites are restricted eg. FaceBook, Blogger and god knows what other sites. Thankfully I was able to post using Blog Press app but was not able to view my posts. Couldn't access my FB app on iPhone. You could access Blogger using a VPN site but these sites do get shut down sometimes! 

The main thing is that it was good to see my best friend again. We do communicate a lot via Whatsapp but nothing beats tete a tete communication! It has been a few years since I last saw her but thanks to FaceTime, we do see each other and chat. The different time zones does make it hard though (7 hrs difference between us).

I know I'll be looking forward to seeing her next year in the UK! Roll on 2013! TTFN!

~ The Weekend ~

Coke by any other name is still a Coke!

Had a BBQ too. Didn't really eat outside as it was way too humid & the neighbour's air conditioning unit sounded like a jet engine! Serious! Felt as though I was next to an airport!

Flying back to Singapore tomorrow. Had a great time here but all good things have to come to an end. Not looking forward to a 5 hour journey with no flight entertainment unit in front of me!!! Urghh!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

~ Friday ~

My stay in Shanghai is almost coming to an end. Been playing with my friend's babe, he's so adorable! Reminds me so much of my boys, especially the eldest when he was a babe!

Speaking of them, hubs sent these over to me


Apparently M&S was using Vespa items as decorations in their store.

Been playing with a new photo free app called Aviary. Quite a good range of adjustment. You can make adjustments to a photo already taken or take a photo with it. On a side note, thankfully, dog is not mine! He's only a puppy but way too big for my liking!

For dinner tonight, we went out for a Thai meal. Absolutely scrumptious! Best dish... Mango fish!

Yum yum yum! That's all I can say! TTFN!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

~ Another Day ~

Today I had a manicure

Had my long nails cut. Amazing it stayed long as I always manage to break one. I supposed not having to do housework or cook have something to do with it! Also coloured it with a shimmery lavender shade. Normally don't do a manicure as I find it uncomfortable having a colour on my nails. But it felt good to have the cuticles tidied.

Then I did a bit of last minute shopping (Xmas isn't too far away). E & I had lunch at a Japanese restaurant (food was fab). Then we did food shopping. Had to pop into the wet market & boy was it hot in there!

There were only the fans to keep cool but frankly, you couldn't feel them. Here's today forecast

Still nice to feel the heat! Haven't felt like that for a long time! TTFN!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

~ 365 Cards: Day 167 ~

Today's challenge is All Boy. Make a masculine card! That is something I don't have a lot so here's my card: 

All digi and used a Mother Goose kit by Lynn Marie.

TTFN!