~ Sketchbook 365: July Challenge ~

There is still time to play at Sketchbook 365. Here's the sketch:

Here's my LO as seen here: 

Cheerios kit by Maya de Groot

I did attempt to follow the sketch this time! Closing date is 19th July. You stand to win a set of Kaisercraft papers. 

It's Saturday today and it's the Summer Fayre at my son's school. As usual, I always do the bookstore. The weather was bordering between rain and sun so we held the stalls indoor but used the outside for games. Thankfully it didn't rain. I was glad it was indoors as it wasn't very warm either. I had fun and my wee one was too engrossed enjoying himself with his friends. Let's hope the school did raise a fair amount of money! 

After the Fayre, the family headed to the town centre. We did a bit of clothes shopping for the boys and then got free Nature Valley bars as we were walking up to Victoria Square. Also got some unique Coke bottles too as they were giving away free Coke bottles. Then, I headed to Selfridges to get a wallet from Cath Kidston. They are currently having a sale at the moment. In fact, quite a lot of stores are having sales! Fab time to shop! 

It's the end of June too. I had some vouchers that I won that needed to be used by today so went digi shopping for kits. Nice to shop when you are not spending your own money! LOL! Bought loads of kits, papers etc. Now to find the time to create! TTFN!

~ Pink Reptile Designs: Sing To The Moon ~

Mirjam came up with a new kit entitled Sing To The Moon, available at Zig Zag Scrap.

Here's my LO using this kit: 

Had fun playing with this kit! TTFN!

~ Simply Tiffany Studios: Artisan Blends Pack 1 ~

Tiffany is famous for her templates and she came out with this amazing set of templates... my fav!!! They are available, either singular or as a set at Design House Digital.

Luv the blends in here. Here's my LO using one of the templates: 

Supplies:

Simply Tiffany Studios: Artisan Blends Pack1
Anna Aspnes: ArtPlay Palette Concerto, 12x12 Edge Overlay No5 & Music Word Transfers No1Elise's Pieces & Chelle's Creations: In HarmonyFont: Pineapple Delight

The boys at last year's concert. They had to dress up to the theme of The Sound of Music. This year, the theme is Jubilee. Well, I've got their costumes ready! It's red, white and blue... far easier to buy! 

My eldest came back from Paris tonight. His coach rolled into the school at 10.30pm. He had gone to Paris with his school band for 4 days and he had a smashing time. Lucky him. They gave 2 performances and got to spend a day at Paris Disneyland, much to the envy of his little brother. Typical lad... gave him a camera and all he took was scenic photos, nothing with his face in it! Arghhh! Hope I can get the group photo somehow! TTFN!

~ Mr Whiskers: Air Pirates ~

Mr Whiskers came up with a new kit entitled Air Pirates:

Luv the elements in here! Here's my page: 

I luv those rock and they made me think of the movie Avatar. So here's my re-creation of it. 

TTFN!

~ Awful Experience ~

So I had this Groupon voucher for a massage at The Wright Way. I set off in good time and followed my satnav. Unfortunately, the bloody thing led me to somewhere way off! When I eventually found it, it was just 10 minutes from my place and I travelled a good hour around Birmingham looking for it! So annoyed with it!!!

Because I was late, I only had 45 minutes of session so I had the massage minus all the extras. First impression of the place... bloody seedy! You enter and on the right is a nail bar and on the left are massive upright tanning cubicles. Go up the stairs and there was an aerobic session taking place as well as a hairdressing corner. Up another flight of stairs are the massage rooms. Now I've been to quite a few massage places so I know what to expect. However, I was in for a rude shock. Firstly, the regular room that the masseuse use was busy (she opened the door to boxes of lingerie around). So she had to use another room. Can't say I was impressed as it didn't give the ambient of a massage room. Pretty bare with a bed to lie down and nothing relaxing whatsoever. It was another massage room as there was a sign on the door but the interior was nothing like a massage room. The masseuse turned on the radio after asking me permission but it was blaring out some rock music! She did eventually change to another channel. Massage was ok but I doubt it was the particular massage that I asked for. The less than 45 minute session left me feeling more agitated than relaxed. It was one of the most awful experience I've ever had. The whole place felt more like a brothel than a salon. Firstly, the interior was rather dark. The layout of the place was rather confusing too. There was so much going on. And the massage rooms was just so uninviting, certainly not the relaxing atmosphere of most massage rooms in general. In my opinion, a case of Jack of all trades but master of none. The salon offered a lot of stuff but didn't bother to make any effort in creating an ambient for what they offer. 

Certainly not going back nor recommending the place to anyone! One of the worst massage experience ever! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 118 ~

This week we are being sponsored by Paper Pretties.

The challenge today is "A Little Shady", basically to use 3 shades of a colour. I chose brown.

Tent image is sponsored by Paper Pretties. I made use Anna Aspnes' ArtPlay Palette Great Outdoor kit. 

TTFN!

~ The Digi Dares #280 ~

This week's digi dares is a tribute to dads! Here's mine:

Supplies:
Anna Aspnes:
- Two Step Template No4B
- ArtPlay Palette Great Outdoors
- ArtPlay Palette Sun Fun
- Scissored Hearts No2
Katie Pertiet: Father's Day Inspiration 6/6/12
Font: Grinched

Had fun creating this! TTFN!

365 Cards: Day 111 ~

This week we are sponsored by DRS Designs Rubber Stamps.

My word prompt for today is 'Music'. Here's my card: 

My musical piece is on the word 'Wish'. 

TTFN!

~ Fancy A Free Kit? ~

Want a chance to win a free kit by the Oscraps designers? They have come together to created Firefly Nights, July's collaboration kit. It's a fabulous kit. Simply add your comment here! TTFN! 

~ One Little Bird: Still Life ~

The Cheery-Os at Oscraps decided to feature a designer on a monthly basis and this month, we chose One Little Bird, in particularly, this kit called Still Life: 

My best friend send me photos of her lil' one and I just scrapped one of them: 

He's such an adorable lil' boy!

The kit was perfect for the photo. TTFN!

~ December Daily 2011 Album ~

Here are the last few pages created to complete my album. Yup, it has taken 6 months to complete the album and would have been more if it wasn't for the voucher!

 Day 21

Day 31

The celebratory photo was taken in very poor lighting hence I made it blend into the background instead. That page completed the album!

 This page represented the Introduction to the album.

This page represented the start of 2010. Well, it was created as I had to fill up a page in the album.

 This page is the back cover of the album. As there was a slot for photo, why not create another page for it!

This page represented the last page of the album. Again, there was a small slot for the album so why not!

I'm so glad it's done and looking forward to seeing the album. Would I do one for this year... you bet! But I'll be doing it in 11x8.5" instead. I had to literally convert all my 12x12 pages as I had a voucher for an A4 size album. Vouchers for square albums are hard to come by. It has been fun looking through the pages to see what had happened each day in December! TTFN!

~ It's Done! ~

OMG! I've finally completed my December Daily 2011 album and just send it off for publishing. Got a deal on Groupon for Photobox and decided to take the plunge. Got me to complete the album too as I had only 3 more pages to do and was just too lazy to finish it off. As soon as I got the voucher, I started work on the remaining 3 pages. I even added an Introduction page, a hello 2012 page and other pages to fill the gaps as I had ordered a 50 page album (let's just say it was cheaper to order 50 pages as opposed to 20 and adding extra pages to it!)

Here's a sample of the album cover:

Used a lot of Anna Aspnes' products for this album. Her templates came in very useful! Looking forward in receiving it! TTFN!

~ Val C. Designs: Never Forget ~

Val C. came up with a new kit based on the Icelandic song in the Eurovision Song Contest. It's called 'Never Forget', and it's available at Zig Zag Scrap either as a bundle or separates (i.e. papers or elements on its own).

Here's my LO:

Luv the kit as the colours are muted and just so easy to use. TTFN!

~ Maya de Groot: Cheerios ~

I met Maya in London on the Jubilee public holiday. She is such a delightful lady and very young indeed. Anyway, she was so inspired by our meeting with the other Oscraps gals that she created this kit entitled Cheerios:

Here's my LO done using this kit. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed using this kit to create my pages with photos taken on that day:

Maya is the gal seen in the orange blouse, holding the sign "Oscraps.com". Beside her is her mom. So nice to have mom and daughter enjoying the same hobby. That day was really special! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 104 ~

The challenge is called 'Flip Flop'.  Nothing to do with wearing it but rather to look out of the window and see what the weather/season etc is and flip flop it onto the card. It's rather dreary and wet in the UK at the moment so guess what's gonna be displayed on my card!!!

I'm hoping for sunshine and preferably in an exotic island! TTFN!

~ On Display! ~

Tried out a new PS skill on a photo to make it look like a water-coloured image. Irene, a member of Oscraps gave this excellent tutorial. She's a gem for sharing this knowledge!

Using Anna Aspnes' ArtPlay Palette GlobeTrotter & Authentic.

Took this view of Marina Bay from this skyscrapper hotel. Singapore was then hosting the Youth Olympic Games and that coloured feature is actually the stadium. I love this technique, will be using it a lot more now!!!

Today marks the end of the half term. Thank goodness, we didn't book to go anywhere as the weather was dire! Typical British weather. My boys didn't fancy going out at all so we stayed in most days,  all of us in our PJs, just chilling out and loafing around. Bliss. I did do a spot of tidying and de-cluttering, namely my craft room. Chucked out a bagful of rubbish. At least, I can see more floor space now. TTFN!

~ December Daily 2011: Day 18 ~

Recently bought a Groupon code to publish my Dec Daily 2011 album. However, there is still 3 pages to complete. What's worst is that I have to convert all the 12x12 pages into 11x8.5" as I got a code for A4 size Photobook. Well, managed to convert all 28 pages, a little tedious but you got the hang of how to do it quickly after a while!

Started to work on the remaining 3 pages. Here's Day 18:

Used products by Anna Aspnes & Joanne Brisebois, available at Oscraps.

Now to complete Day 21 & 31. 

On the fun side, my Treasured Keepsake LO was picked as a winner for The DigiDares. Got some coupons to new designers... looking forward to shopping! TTFN!

~ DigiDare #278 ~

Well, when I saw the Dare for this week, to journal about a clock, I immediately thought of my watch instead. I don't have any fanciful clock at home but I do have my pride and joy which has a bit of history to it. Here's my LO:

LO created using Anna Aspnes' products from Oscraps

I love my watch... it has kept good time all these years. The irony now is that I don't wear any watch on my hand at all except when I'm travelling... well, I need to keep track of the time differences in catching the next flight! TTFN!

~ London Meetup ~

I headed off to London on Jubilee day to meet up with the Cheery-Os from the Oscraps team. One of them is currently in London as she's doing a European tour. Two ladies from Holland decided to drop in too and 2 Brits & myself all decided to meet up. Now, none of us have ever seen each other in real life but we have chatted in the forum.

I happened to arrive fairly early in London and did a bit of shopping. Then at 12, I went to meet up with the gals at Marble Arch tube station. I recognise them instantly! It was all very exciting. Then we headed off to meet the Australian gal in her hotel. Again, another squeal of excitement all around!

We all had lunch at an Italian restaurant, pre-booked of course. Thankfully, it wasn't noisy so we could chat and be heard. 

The Oscraps Gals

After lunch, we headed to the hotel for more chatting. I guess not having seen each other, we just wanted to get to know everyone better. We had so much fun. It was sad to say goodbye but we were all so glad that we met up. 

I stayed over in London at one of the gal's house. Again we chatted the whole night. We shared something in common... she had lived in Singapore for 3 years so we were discussing about the scrapbooking scene there. 

Caught the 1013 train back home. Boy was I glad to be home. As much as I enjoy London, I just find it too busy for my liking. We didn't do the Jubilee scene as neither of us was interested in jostling with the crowd. It just so happened that we met up on Jubilee day as our friend had that day free! 

I'm looking forward to scrapping the photos taken on that day. It's the highlight of this week! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 97 ~

The challenge today is to take a card made previously and use the same elements to create another card.  Well, I took this card:

Re-use the digi elements and made another card: 

I used Anna Aspnes' ArtPlay Palette Metro Graffiti kit (one of my fav kits) and her Birthday Word Art No1. 

TTFN!

~ Art Journal Caravan: Itinerary #16 ~

It's been a while since I did my Art Journal Caravan and today, I looked at Itinerary #16. I chose to do the quote as I love this particular quote:

I wasn't sure where I was going with this art journal. Started off with Anna's Artsy Kardz as the base and chose this particular gal from Finecrafted Designs' Stylish Attitudes. Bit by bit as I layered on the various elements, it slowly took shape. Have to say, I do like the finished page. This page also completes the Inspiration challenge at DHD. 

It's the first day of the half term break. Awful weather ... so typical of the UK. The weather forecast for the following week isn't any good either. Just as well we didn't book to go anywhere. Looking forward to catching up on my AJC pages. TTFN!

~ Get It Scrapped Creative Team ~

The news is out!

In case any one is wondering, it's a site for both paper and digital scrappers. They have lots of interesting articles on the subject of scrapping. There are 4 different sites: 

     

     

(Images are linked to the sites)

I was subscribing to Masterful Scrapbook Design and I enjoyed reading the articles that came out each month. Hence, when the CT call came, I decided to give it a go and was amazed when I received the email inviting me to join the team. This takes the creative process to a different level as it's no longer merely creating with a kit but rather creating to a specific idea, theme, technique etc. More challenging and fun! Bear in mind that the CT consists of both paper and digi scrappers. 

Looking forward to contributing! TTFN!

~ Oscraps Collaboration: Dandelion Days ~

The designers of Oscraps have done it again... brought out a smashing kit entitled Dandelion Days.

It contains 63 papers and 133 elements. Anyway, had a play with it and came up with this LO:

Picture of my boys on the roller coaster in one of the rides at Universal Studios in Singapore last year. 

This kit is amazing! There is so much in there! TTFN!