~ Scrap 365 Blog Hop ~

If you have come here from Louise, welcome!

Finally, it's reveal time.... I'm part of the Scrap 365 Design Team. Gosh, wasn't easy not talking about it especially since we are talking about a new scrapping magazine!

I'm Audrey and I'm from the United Kingdom. A mom of 2 boys, my days are spent chauffeuring them to activities most of the time. And when I'm free, I indulge in my favourite pastime, scrapbooking. I've been scrapping for the past 7 years and the interest hasn't waned one bit! In fact, I'm now entering a new crafting arena, namely, digital. Previously stunned, due to the fact I enjoyed the tactile feature of paper scrapping, I turned to it late last year when lack of time to play with my stash forced me to consider digital scrapbooking. My first foray was doing pages for Journal Your Christmas using Apple's Pages software. The more I tinkered, the more addicted I got and when I finished the album, I became seriously hooked to digital scrapbooking. Having Photoshop on my Mac, I tried to use it but it simply confused me. Then early this year, I took as Jessica Sprague's Up And Running Class and she nailed the software for me! Suddenly, it was less daunting and so easy to use. I have to credit her class for teaching me how to use Photoshop properly and starting my path to digital scrapbooking. I now enjoy digital scrapbooking for the mere fact that I can literally scrap anywhere... all I have to do is bring my Macbook with me. So far, I've scrapped in a church, on a beach, in a car, on a plane, in the airport etc.

The crunch came when I applied for a DT position and was accepted as part of Simply Tiffany Studios Creative Team. Tiffany specialised in templates and I was only too delighted to be able to use them for scrapping. They sure as hell cut short the scrapping time! 

I'm still trying to find my style with regards to digi scrapping. As a paper scrapper, my favourite embellishment was using stamps. I've got an enormous collection of them. Hence, not surprising I do try and mimic what I used to play before. Now digi brushes are a great substitute. I use them a lot in my digi creations. 

As much as I enjoy scrapping pages digitally, I still do indulge in playing with paper from time to time. I make cards, tags, mini LOs (eg. 4x6) and off the wall projects. I contribute to 2 card blogs, 365 Cards & Christmas Cards All Year 'Round and am part of Banana Frog's Design Team. 

When Katy, the editor of Scrap365, asked me to join the Scrap365 Team, I was delighted. As a contributor to Craft Stamper, I was only too happy to move from there to the new scrapbooking magazine. Having found out the features that the magazine would offer, it sure fitted my new interest perfectly. 

I leave with a few favourite digital pages...

And if you fancy winning a year's subscription to Craft Stamper magazine and over £20 worth of stamps, do leave a comment on every blog you hop including Scrap365 blog! Who knows, it might just be your lucky day! If you are in London over the weekend of 24th September, there is a Big Stamp and Scrapbook Show at Alexander Palace. If you happen to pop by, do visit the Traplet stand (no.63) for a sneak peek of the magazine and a special subscription deal. The first issue of Scrap365 will be on sale on the 18th November at the newstands and digitally worldwide. And if you are on the social media, here are the some addresses to note: 

Blog 

Face Book

Twitter

Your next hop is Gabrielle! TTFN!

~ On Display ~

More pages from my summer album...

 Meeting up with old friends and going for a long walk on the Southern Ridges route.

 Visiting Sentosa. Big mistake going on a public holiday... so crowded!

Meeting up with the Joylites in the morning. We saw each other every week where time permited and I 'hug' them for making the time for me! In the evening, we visited Clarke Quay as they had a Mooncake Festival of lanterns on display. 

At the moment, I'm focusing more on photos and documenting events that took place. All these pages are gonna be printed out into a book. Still a few more pages to complete.... TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 204 ~

This week we are sponsored by TradeFish Designs,

They are an acrylic stamp company and I got some cute stamps to play with. The challenge for today is Outer Space and here's my card: 

The background was created using distressed inkpad and sprayed with a white mist. The stamped images were coloured using Copic markers. 

Have to say, the acrylic stamps stamp very well, took the ink quite well and gave a crisp image. Had fun playing with it! TTFN!

~ On Display ~

Been busy creating and here's a few more from my summer album:

 Boys were so excited when daddy could join them. Now the holidays really begin!

Meeting up with the Joylites. First time all five of us could meet up. Well, maybe tim sum was the dangling carrot!

We visited Universal Studios again and this time, we made sure we saw everything & rode on all the rides. I skipped the Human & Cylon roller coasters... the mere thought of being upside down just didn't appeal to me! The boys went on them twice! The second time unaccompanied! 

Marina Barrage - a new place to visit for us but ever so interesting! 

Still got more pages to come and deadline's looming.... TTFN!

~ On Display ~

Just some LOs to display from my summer album...

 Brought the boys to ice skate although the ground wasn't in the least bit icy! Think they fell more than they skated!

 

Watching the fireworks from the National Day Parade Dress Rehearsal. Getting tickets to see this Parade is like gold dust! You can't buy it, you can bid for it and it's just luck if you get it!

 Boys didn't swim that often this time around. Still, when they did, they enjoyed themselves.

 A good friend that brought me out for walks in a very interesting place. As usual, we finished it off by eating! Nothing new in Singapore!

Just us having a meal with a friend at Sushi Express & then a drink at Raffles Hotel! Nice to know that my parents were on hand to babysit the boys! Well, they weren't too bothered about not going out!

I'm not too bothered about my pages being uniformed... it would bore me to tears! I rather have it colourful and the freedom to play and explore colours! Currently leaning towards Anna Aspnes designs and Webster Pages for these LOs!

On the mundane side, hubs and moi are planning to re-decorate certain rooms in the house! I'm giving up my craft room and turning it into a bedroom for my youngest. (How I'm gonna remove all the stash I've in that room is another matter...) We are gonna turn the lounge into a lounge cum study cum guest room. Whether or not we use it as a lounge is another thing as since we moved in, we have never ever use that room apart from being a dumping ground for coats! Yeah, when we have guests, we use it but on our own, it's straight to the bedroom where we watch TV in there. I guess we can kiss goodbye to the next few weekends as we re-paint, re-decorate and re-sort the respective rooms. I will have to get rid of a lot of stash as they will never fit into the new study which is much smaller than the existing room.   Not that I mind but it's the tedious task of finding buyers for them! 

I'm entering a different phrase in the crafting arena. I'm certainly leaning towards digi as it's more convenient and definitely cheaper to maintain as a hobby. Paper stash can be so costly. However, I'm still doing cards (can't bring myself to buy!) and will maintain a small amount of paper stash for DT purposes. But doing a paper LO will be a thing of the past! TTFN!

~ So Terribly Busy! ~

My gosh! A good friend of mine pointed out to me that I've been neglecting my blog! Well, the moment I arrived back in the UK, I was thrown into serious household chores. Hubs left me with 2 big baskets of clothes to put away, all his may I add! Then I had to sort the airing cupboard out as he out the shelves out from there for the boiler to be serviced (but it never happened, that's another story... ) and merely shoved everything back in the wrong order. Men! Can never leave them on their own! They just can't cope! Not to mention unpacking 8 luggage worth of clothes, toys, food etc that we brought back from Singapore. On top of that, a deadline to fulfil ... doing my pages for my son's album that needed to be printed out by a certain date! Even 24 hours wasn't enough for me! Friend of mine has been asking me out for coffee morning but had to take a rain check until later this month. Got a couple of deadlines to fulfil before this month ends! 

On the crafting side, I managed to get my son's Year 6 album done and printed out into a Photobook. Have to say, I'm extremely proud of it. All events relating to him in that particular school year was chronologically documented, as much as I could within 21 pages! I'm sure I could do with a few more pages. Here are some of them:

 Album cover

 School camp that he went. Unfortunately, couldn't get any photos of the camp activities as the school never put it on their blog. So it was whatever I took before he left. 

 A sponsored walk the school does every year.

 A music workshop they both attended during a school day.

 Experiencing snow during a school day. Well, their headmaster is opposed to closing down the school despite heavy snow!

 Their annual Summer Fayre which I always help out.

 Sports day - Year3&4 was held in the morning while Year5&6 in the afternoon. I took part in the parents race and came in first both times (had both boys in the 2 groups)! Good to know I got some points for their teams!

Some parents got together and organised a Prom Night for the Year 6 kids. 

The above LOs were all digitally done. I would never have finished it if they were paper-based! It's much easier and fun doing it on the laptop as opposed to sitting on my scrapping table these days.

 I'm currently doing an Album for my summer hols and it has got to be finished by the 25th this month. I should have done it during the hols but somehow, the mojo wasn't there! Well, paying the price for it now as I'm rushing through them. That's me! Always a last minute person but I know I will get it done! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 197 ~

So I'm back to doing cards again. Took a hiatus of 6 weeks but am back and raring to go! This week's challenge is to include beads on the card. Here's mine: 

Pulled out my scraps (I've got piles of them) and a Magnolia girl coloured with Copics. Have to say, added more colours to my stash while I was in Singapore. It's so much cheaper to buy over there and with 15% off, who can resist?!! 

A closeup of the beads used on the card. They were used as decorative bits around the card. 

I felt a little rusty when doing this card. I guess 6 weeks of inertia does create havoc with my mojo! Hopefully it will get better with more practice! I still have this year's Xmas cards to make as I've not been consistently making them throughout the months. I guess digi might come to the rescue if I ran out of time to do them! TTFN!

~ 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!