~ Still Around ~

I'm still around, just been busy chilling out and enjoying the holidays! Makes a difference when you are in a different country! Anyway, as much as I would like to, I've not been keeping up to date with my vacation LOs. However, here are the few that I've done, gone for the 11x8.5 page!

The first day that we took off!

Having to spend 7 hrs in Dubai airport... we survived!

Meeting up with the Joylite gals! 

I did mention there were a few stuff that I needed to do, well, got done halfway, not as much as I would like! I did, however, add more pens to my Copics collection. How not to when there's a 15% discount at the moment?!! Just have to restrain myself from going to the store constantly! Despite going digi, I still do like to colour in my stamped images (which I mainly use for cards).... rather therapeutic I find! 

Will be back soon.... TTFN!

~ Banana Frog Hop ~

We are at the end of July and it's time for another Banana Frog Hop. As the theme is on Summer, I've got some summer treats lined up.

Just before my boys left school, I made up some summer treats for their teacher. As they have quite a few teachers that they want to give, I made up these little sour cream containers (instructions can be found here) from scrap patterned papers. For labels, I stamped a large star from Just About Stars set and used the Teen alphabets for names. 

Using a souffle pen, I went over the name so that it was more visible. 

As these containers were easy to do, I made quite a few and filled them with chocolates. They made a lovely summer treats especially if you have a fair number of teachers to give to!

Who says labels have to be boring! Now these can be tailored to any occasions depending on the colours that you used. 

If you fancy any Banana Frog stamps, just leave a comment and you might just be lucky! Thanks for dropping by! TTFN!

~ Summer Hols At Last! ~

Finally the school term ended amidst much tears (more from my part) than my eldest. He leaves Junior school this term. In fact, he couldn't wait for it to end as he's looking forward to going to his secondary school, which, I guess it's good!

However, the last week of term was filled with tons of activities... school leavers performance, award ceremony, violin exams etc. Not to mention packing luggage. Hence, it will be a welcome relief to board the plane to start my summer hols! Never mind that I'll be in the air for a good 24 hours!

Well, I plan to catch up on my digi knowledge, lots of tutorial to go thru', lots of pages to create, lots of albums to fulfil! Yes, it's gonna be a busy summer hols for me but more a learning one. Let's hope I can accomplish at least half of them! TTFN!

~ Le Weekend! ~

Another busy weekend again.

Friday

Sent my wee one to camp. He was having a pirate theme camp for 3 days. He initially didn't want to go but I took no notice of that and he went. The Cub leader does an amazing job organising activities and I want him to enjoy the outdoor life. Well, he did have fun!

A quick LO I did to document his trip. 

Supplies:
Tiffany Tillman: 52 Template No.20
Cosmo Cricket: Mr Campy
Celeste Knight: Weathered Overlays
Fonts: Travelling Typewriter (TT), Impact & Oh {Photo} Shoot!

Saturday

A lot of errands to ran in the morning. Test drive 2 cars, Polo Match (very new) & Renault Modus. I preferred the latter due to the gadgets in there. Such a minefield when looking for a new car... so much to choose from... just make it so confusing.

In the evening, we sent our eldest off to his Prom Night. Yup, a group of parents organised a Prom Night  for the Year 6 students. It was a grand affair. My boy wasn't into dressing up but I made sure he put on something decent! A good way to say goodbye to his friends as the majority have opted to go to another school. 

While he was there, SIL and fiance came over and we headed off to an Indian restaurant. So nice to eat without the kids arounds. She has also asked me to help out with her wedding preparation so I guess I've got some work to do after my summer vacation. 

Sunday

The morning saw us rushing to a recommended shop to get the eldest's PE kit. He has a compulsory list but the shop owner knew what we wanted and sorted us out! All his stuff will have his name on and hopefully, will last 2 years! With that sorted, I'm done with the boys' uniforms & shoes!

In the afternoon, we picked up the wee one from camp, got home then headed for their violin concert rehearsal. It lasted a good 2 hrs but it was worthwhile. They are due to perform at the Adrian Boult Hall this coming Friday based on the The Sound of Music theme. I now have to get some outfits for them for that day. 

Managed to create another LO today as I haven't had the chance to sit down for the last few days. 

My boys had their sports day last Friday and lucky for them, the weather was fine. The wee one had his in the morning while the older one was in the afternoon. Made sense otherwise it would have been too crowded on the field. This LO was based on the older one. 

Supplies:
Tiffany Tillman: 52 Template No.19
Robyn Meierotto: Vintage Days
Gennifer Bursett: Toolbox Mist V5
Dana Zarling: Lakeside
Karen Funk: Sweet Spring
Anna Aspnes: ArtPlay Palette Science/ Vacation Word Transfer
Splendid Fiins: Office Borders

Fonts: Traveling Typewriter & Old Typewriter

TTFN!

~ Published! ~

Not in the magazine sense! Finally, I received my Summer Vacation 2010 Album. It's bounded in a book. Have to say, it's an amazing feeling but can't say I'm thoroughly impressed with the printing though. Seems quite shoddy so I've shot a complaint. I expected the entire page to be covered but apparently, there's a margin at the top and side. It's annoying when you follow the rules given and it doesn't get printed out properly! Still it won't stop my publishing my works in a book format now. It certainly save a lot of space and you get to see your LO in print! Cool! Just have to find a good reliable company that prints out properly! 

Some sample pages. Noticed the white margin at the top of the page. Not pleased at all! Still it's a blast seeing them in print. 

Well, will be doing this summer's vacation photos as a digi again and getting them printed. Bought a Groupon offer for a Photobook from another company ... hope they do a better job! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 127 ~

Today's challenge is Triple It! Well, basically, taken an item and triple it twice i.e. same embellishment, then make it the same in another way... same colour, same size, same something! Sounds confusing? Here's my example: 

In this card, it's the buttons that are being tripled! 3 buttons, all red and similar size!

TTFN!

~ On Display! ~

My last page of my Summer Vacation 2010 album. Once I've sorted out the cover page, they will be ready for publishing. 

Looking forward to it! TTFN!

~ Strike! ~

Due to the strike, the boys were off school but not me! So I went in the morning to do my time and conducted a general meeting with my team. It was a productive meeting as we raise several issues and clarified procedures. The boys had private violin lessons in the afternoon as their exams are drawing near and I'm getting nervous! 

Lots of activities happening in the next few weeks. Can't believe how time has flown and there is only 3 weeks left to the school term. 3 weeks left for my eldest in the Junior School as he starts Secondary School in Sept. Gosh! Told my wee one to spend the next 3 weeks with his brother as it's the last time they both will be in the same school. 

It's the eldest's birthday in 2 weeks time. He initially wanted a sleepover with his friends but we (hubs & moi) are not keen and suggested a family outing instead. So we'll be heading for a theme park instead. I just can't cope with boisterous, hormonal-raging boys even for a few hours! Gosh, my boys are noisy enough without several more adding to the picture!

The warm weather has enabled hubs to do a lot of DIY. He put in a new bath and fixed a leaky flat roof. We had a fair number of quotes for it but they were such a ridiculous amount that he decided to do it himself with the aid of You Tube. He certainly did a great job!

I'm off to a carboot this Sunday. Got a fair amount of stuff to get rid off, namely toys, clothes & stash! I've lost my desire to paper scrap and see no point in hanging on to the monstrous amount of stash that has been accumulated over the years! Sheesh, did I really buy that much?

On the organisation front, got my boys' uniform bought, thanx to MIL. She got them from M&S where there's a 20% discount off uniforms at the moment. Plus as a previous employer, she get another 20% off so talk about a saving! I've only the PE kit to get for the eldest. I'm getting them out of the way as I'm away during the entire summer hols so I don't have any time to buy them if I don't do it now! Even their shoes have been bought but only because they worn them out. Let's hope they don't have a sudden growth spurt!

It's definitely gonna be a busy 3 weeks ahead. There's PTA & Governors meetings to attend, violin concert as well as Leavers' Performance/Award Ceremony. Not to mention a lot of little events in between. So looking forward to the summer hols! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 120 ~

Today's challenge is Beautiful Blue Ribbon. More like a rosette to me really. Anyway, it needn't be blue so here's my version of it:

TTFN!

~ What's Up With The Weather? ~

The day started brilliantly! It was warm and sunny. Actually it was very warm and humid. And this was the temperature I captured on my car at that particular time:

Seriously, I couldn't believe it! No wonder I was perspiring! But it didn't last long. It drizzled a little in the afternoon. Why can't it just stay hot?!!

On the creative front, I'm almost done with my Summer Vacation 2010 album. I'm ecstatic as all these years, I have always wanted to do a summer vacation album but never got it done. The closest I got was to decorate the album and that was it! But since going digi, it has been far easier to create pages and finally, my pages for the album is done. Now all that is left is to decorate the front cover and then I can sent them off to be printed into a Photobook. Not sure how it's gonna turn out as it will be my first time publishing it. Anyway, here are the last few pages...

I have deliberately kept these pages simple, i.e. not much embellishments as I'm not sure how it would look on a printed page especially in a book! Besides, I was racing against time so I needed them simple! I was lucky to get a Groupon deal on a Photobook hence that is why these pages will be printed. Off to edit them now. There are a couple of LOs whose colours need changing! TTFN!

~ Oops! ~

Ok so I've been busy and have neglected my blog. There's so much things happening at the moment, especially this month! Let's see if I can show them instead!

First week of June... half term and we were down in West Dorset at West Bay. Booked a caravan for 4 days. Boys enjoyed themselves. They went crabbing and loved it! We spent time with our hub's sis and her family too. 

The boys rolling down the pebbled beach at West Bay. 

Here they are crabbing to their heart's content!

The second week of June, we entertained some friends from Singapore. They were here for the weekend and we brought them to Cadbury World, which never fails to amaze any foreign guests! I managed to find a 20% discount coupon online which we used to buy the tickets! Gotta luv the internet!

A LO to document our trip to Cadbury World. For once, we were all looking at the camera on the Cadabra ride. I look fat (who wouldn't with a jumper under a coat!) but it was a particular cold day that day.... it literally rained all day! Darn weather!

The 3rd week of June was another busy week as we (hubs & moi) attended Parents' Evening in the new school of Oliver. We were pleased with what we saw and we got uniforms for him too. Then Oliver was off to camp that weekend!

The 4th week saw my youngest receiving Star of the Week cert. I had a text to attend his Assembly. (A LO will be coming soon!) Then, I had guests from Singapore again, who stayed over for a nite. We brought them around B'ham Town Centre and had dinner at Jimmy Spices! Finally, I received news that Oliver made it to the Birmingham Youth Orchestra. He had to audition for it and he got in! So chuffed for him and well deserved too! What that means... a 3 hr practise every Sat from 9am - 12pm from Sep onwards! Never mind that he will also be joining the School Band in his new school too. 

It's the Summer Fayre at my boys' school tomorrow and I'm helping out. Fingers crossed for a sunny day! What does next week brings? Another Assembly attendance for the older boy and Sports Day! Sheesh! Who ever said the role of a mommy was a relaxing one!!! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 113 ~

Today's challenge is Tuesday Trio. The card has to include floss, bead and stamped image. Here's my card:

Stamped image from Banana Frog's Winter Wonderland. The tree has been decorated with beads & floss.

TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 106 ~

Today's challenge is based on this movie's inspiration:

Here's my card: 

I focused on the blues! Card created using Katie Pertiet's Double Decker kit.

TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 99 ~

Today's challenge is to create a birthday card with a birthday theme sentiment! Here's my card:

Card created using Karen Funk's One Year Older kit.

TTFN! 

~ 365 Cards: Day 92 ~

Today's challenge is My Favourite Thing and the theme is to choose a favourite ice-cream favour. Well, I absolutely love mint chocolate so here's my card:

The background of the card was digital created using elements from Katie Pertiet and Anna Aspnes. Punched butterflies was then added to the card!

TTFN!

~ Banana Frog Hop ~

Welcome to May's Banana's Blog Hop. As it's Banana Frog's birthday this month, the theme is all about birthdays! Well, here's my offerings:

As I'm making my foray into the digital arena, I created the background paper of this card. Then I made use of That Takes The Cake stamp set and played with the cake stand and cupcakes. It was finished with a sprinkle of Stickles.

The second card is a little traditional. I went for a clean and simple look. Paper from Cosmo Cricket. I used Paperchains stamp set, stamped the triangle stamp back to back so that they could be folded to create a bunting. Then I finished off by using the journaling box from Sentimental Style stamp set and stamped a sentiment.

Your next stop is Katy! And if you fancy winning a Banana Frog stamp set, just leave a comment! TTFN!

~ 7 Days In May: Day 7 ~

The last day of the challenges and today, it asks for a hybrid card. Freebie includes several card templates which I made use of but printed them out separately so that I could assemble them onto the card. Here's what I've done:

Supplies:

K Holtz: Card template
LivEdesigns: Naturally Free
Digital Stamp: Digital Delights
Sentiment: SRM Stickers
Gems: Kaiser
Rafia: Bare Basics
Copic markers

I had great fun with the challenges and managed to keep up with all of them. Well, seeing that they were digital, it's so much easier to create them. I reckon I scrap far more LOs digitally than I did with paper! 

Talking about digi, I had to invest in an external 1 TB hard disk. Digi supplies filled up my Mac rather rapidly and I was left with only 10 GB! So a quick check on Amazon and I got Western Digital. It arrived rather quickly. Immediately reformat it for Mac usage and partitioned the disk into 2 sections, one for Time Machine and the other for digi supplies. Time Machine is a feature of Mac whereby it backs up the entire laptop. Certainly very useful if you ever change to a new laptop or suffer a hard disk failure! And to be on the safe side, I also back up my photo and digi files on iPhoto too! And to be triple safe, I even burn them on DVD. Having lost precious photos before, I rather be safe than sorry. I've accumulated so many digi supplies that I'll go berserk if ever I lose them especially since I've them nicely categorised in iPhoto! It was a time consuming process but well worth it as I'm now aware of what I've got and am able to take full advantage of using them. 

Looking forward to the one week hols! Got so much to learn! TTFN!

~ 7 Days In May: Day 6 ~

Today's challenge is to scrap a LO about something that is worth telling and to use the title 'True Story'. Well, searched my photo gallery to find something and then, I saw this photo and a lightbulb went! Here's my LO:

My favourite dish - chilli crabs! OMG, I miss this dish so much!

Supplies:
Anna Aspnes: ArtPlay Palette Blooming Marvelous, Find My Way2, Mist, Seafoam, Special One & WordPlay.
Font: Pea Jay.

One more day to go before the challenges end.  TTFN!

~ 7 Days In May: Day 5 ~

Today's challenge has a couple of criteria: Creating a LO based on the theme "This is Love" and includes 2 photos. There is also a template given although it's not compulsory to use it:

Well, I used the template but changed it slightly. Here's my final product:

Photo of us taken at Marina Bay Sands hotel, at SkyPark, the top of the hotel. Amazing view and boy would I luv to swim in the pool!

Supplies:
iNSD Blog Hop kit from DHD
Gennifer Bursett: Toolbox Mist V5
Karen Funk: Wordstrips
Fonts: FontinSans Regular & For One Hundredth Time

So far, 5 days and 5 LOs! I'm having fun and that's what it's all about! TTFN!

~ Scrap Factor! ~

Phew! I sailed through Week 6. This week's theme focus on multiple photos and frankly, I found it hard to create my LO. Really struggled but this was how it turned out:

Thought I used a reel to showcase the multiple photos.

Supplies

Jen Allyson’s Vanity Fair paper
Katie Pertiet’s Winged Corners, Letterbox Clusters, Slide Reels, Defined Disc
Karen Funk’s Family Ties & One of a Kind
Shabby Princess’ Splendid & Happy Go Lucky
Anna Aspnes’ Word Transfers
Elle’s Studio’s Four Seasons
Agnes Biro’s Easter Fun
Tiffany Tillman’s Tear Set1
Splendid Fiin’s Think Spring
Gennifer Bursett’s Grandma’s Easter Bonnet
Merkeleyd’s Get Together
Celeste Knight’s Wildflower
LivEdesigns’ Taped It Up Noted2
Font: Old Newspaper Type

School term ends today! Yay! Looking forward to the one week break whereby I'm gonna catch up on my tutorials and digi class! TTFN!