Love....

Just sharing a layout I made of me and my mum for the upcoming Mother's Day :) Finally using some of my Studio Calico's kit and of course some Maggie Holme's goodness!

Photo taken when I was still pregnant (39 weeks, I think) when we were at the Grove

I am still in love with gold splatters, can you tell? :)

Inked the doilies as well for added interest! :) You can see more inspirations for Mother's Day layouts on Paper Issues' blog and also stand a chance to win some Pink Paislee goodness!

Remember to use my code if you want to purchase from Paper Issues' shop. You get 20% off !!

Eve

Things I made...

I have been quiet on the blog front but I have not stopped crafting! :) I was busy completing my first December Daily and then I decided to start Project Life this year. It's going to be an interesting year, with the arrival of our firstborn in March.

I was also completing a couple of album covers. I have a 8.5x11" and a 6x8" album that I have not decorated and I decided to beautify them. 

This is the cover of the 8.5x11" album. I was using it to document places we go for our walks but I guess it can be for anything now... hehe...

This is the cover of the SN@P album I bought during 2Peas Black Friday sale. I think it's a good deal. I love the size and quality of the page protectors. It's definitely a brand that I will look out for when I want albums of this size. I can't wait for their new page protectors to be out too.... to be honest, I love the Design A layout from Becky Higgins but I don't really like the quality of their plastic. So far, the best page protectors I've tried are those from Recollection, SN@P and WRMK. 

My December Daily! This year's theme is mostly kraft. I will go more colourful next year! :D

Eve

Happiness

 ..... can come in many different forms. And for me, one of them was receiving a really happy email from Little Yellow Bicycle sometime early October informing me that I have been given the opportunity to be a part of their 'Once Upon a Christmas' Cycling Team (yeay!) 

.... and then of course, the anticipation of receiving a box full of goodies from them! (really, they spoil us!!!)

I made 2 layouts and 2 cards and still have lots of leftovers!!! :)

This is the first layout I made. The photos was from last year when I was still in Malaysia. I love the snowflakes on this pp. And assembling the rest of the embellishments on it was effortless.

For this layout, I used the little silver stars as accents and oh, I actually was thinking of hoarding the reindeer (cos I really loved it) but I used it on this layout anyway.. :) I popped it up on pop dots to create some dimension. I also stitched the green pp just because....

Look at the reindeer! Isn't it a doll!!! And the snowflakes on its body! love love love!!

I love the chipboard embellishments they have in this line as well. Ok, I guess you know I have a thing for snowflakes by now :)

This card is made under 10 minutes because LYB has the awesomest papers! :D I cut out a part of a pp with the little boy and girl and popped them on top of another pp, tied some twine on it and finished it off with the 'Merry & Bright' sentiment. 

I love the little baubles provided in the chipboard embellishment set as well and created this card with them. I drew the dotted lines and tied the bakers twine before adhering them on the baubles and that's about it! Oh, I added some stickles to them cos I wanted the 'snowy' effect :) And the Merry Christmas sentiment is from the pp where I cut out the little boy and girl! :)

Don't they look pretty? :)

Eve

Back from hiatus....

.... I hope. I know I have not been updating my blog for the last couple of weeks (or was it months, I lose track..) but I still have lots of scrapbook pages I have done that I want to share. I actually managed to fill up one Becky Higgins' album within 2 months and I've ordered another one.. lol. So, you can imagine how many more I have in store to share (if I am hardworking enough...).

As you can see, these are still the photos from the Universal Studios happy day back in June! :) Well, I have a lot of photos from that day to scrap :D

I love to add glossy accents to highlight certain embellishments :) I love that they pop a little and that makes me really happy!

Oh, I was out with my church folks on Labor's Day for a picnic at the park too... Photos and updates to follow :) It was a fun day out and it was my birthday too but no one knew :D Well, I just want to spend the day out in the sun with people I adore and it doesn't matter if they don't know :) I had fun and that's the most important thing :)

Eve

Title-less....

It's so hard to come up with a title for my posts most of the time. I blog about so many random things in one post that I sometimes am not sure what to title it :) So, I hope you can understand why today's post is 'title-less'.

I was experimenting with photo-taking indoors for my Etsy shop these two days. I don't have the luxury of a big window with very bright sunlight shining in now... so I have to improvise. Oh, it is very sunny outside here in LA, it's just not shining into my apartment... haha. 

I caught the right lighting yesterday but I decided I didn't like the background and tried to take pictures of my products again today... then I discovered (finally), why my product pictures aren't showing in the shop as how I wanted them to!! But Mr. Sun has left the 'building', figuratively.... cos he's still out shining bright just now... the light just wasn't streaming in through the window anymore. 

There has been a lot of trial and error but I have finally got it! I just need to wait for tomorrow to come to continue my photo-taking endeavors :) 

I can't wait for all the photos to turn out how I want them to.. haha... it's so easy to use instagram or some other apps but not for the shop. I have to represent the product in its actuality as accurately as possible.

Anyway, if you made it thus far reading about my adventure in photographing my notebooks and badges, here's a layout I would like to share with you! :) Actually, I think I completed this last month .. I am so slow in posting them up. I have a lot more backlogged now :P

I am having a lot of fun creating layouts now. 12x12 layouts used to be very daunting to me and I never really made any back in Malaysia, however, once I started, it seems more do-able now :) I am getting the hang of it. I created some 8.5x11 layouts too... will share them soon.

Eve

Summer time

For the first time in my life, I can say, 'it's Summer', and I am actually here to experience it :D It's fun to experience life in LA and like what my friend said, I may like it here too much to want to ever leave. And though it's only been 2 months plus since I landed in LA, I can say, I already fell in love with this place. 

I may be living in a much smaller space compared to back home, having to be a lot more independent than before (thank God I have been thrown into a lot of situations where I need to re-learn, buck-up and live) and having to create new friendships but I treat everything as new experiences :)

This picture was taken in Dec 2011, before I had LASIK... oh, I loved that pair of glasses .. haha... We were in Bangsar with my mum and grandma.

I created the banner using washi tape and glued some of them down using pop-dots to create dimension.. also dotted the page with some liquid pearls. I drew some hearts and then used glossy accent to make them pop :) 

Oh, and I've got some really cool art books to keep me company this summer. Every page I turn, I go, 'wow...' so, off I go now to admire those pages and attempt at some on my own :)

Quirky

Love Always

My grandma is my rock. She's one of the strongest ladies I know in my life. The things she went through before in her life, the way she thinks, conducts her life and lives her life are worthy to be written into a book and immortalized. 

She was the one who took care of me when I was a little girl as my mum had to work. She cared for me and took me to kindergarten. I remember fondly the memories of walking through the muddy paths in the backlanes to get to the kindergarten and how she stopped at a neighbour's house to get tissue to wipe off the mud on my white school shoes before we reach the gates of the school :) Those were the days before they tarred the roads in the lanes behind her old house. 

She was already in Australia when my Hubby and I flew to the States, so when I met up with her in Melbourne, she hugged me and teared. sigh... it tugs on my heartstrings to realize that she is caught up in years (but I want her around for many, many more years to come...).

I love you, Grandma.... you'll always, always have a special place in my heart and I can't wait to see you again when I go back!!

 Wish you could come but you said the journey is too long... and yes, I do understand flying that long is uncomfortable for you... I will be back in a blink of an eye! Let's take lots and lots of pictures together again! :)

Quirky

Lovely Day

It's official... I l-o-v-e Studio Calico. Something about their kits and choice of paper jives with me... There are many beautiful kits out there too but sometimes it's just which strikes a cord on our heartstring, yes? :)

The layout I made here is scrap-lifted from Jessy and she's the featured artist for this week over at Studio Calico. She made such a beautiful layout and I just love how she effortlessly cuts out pieces of patterned paper to use. I'm learning to do that now too. Afterall, they are supposed to help me make a pretty layout, not stay in the paper pad :P

Photo was taken on a very lovely day in the Rose Garden @ Werribee Park. I must say, that is one of my favorite places in Melbourne now. Considering the fact that it is quite a drive away but it is very much worth it! I would want to go there again whenever I drop by Melbourne :)

Close up.... I've seen these twine inspirations on blogs a lot and finally decided to try it for myself!

I love the twirls they make, actually. I think I will use them more in my future layouts :) Oh, and the doilies are inspired by a tutorial over at Jessy's blog too. I am loving the scrunched-up effect. As you can see, they are subtly inked too :)

And here's the full layout. How's it? I think this is one of my favorites so far! 

Quirky

*click*

I wouldn't say that I have a trigger-happy finger but I really do love taking pictures. I have bought quite a few cameras these last couple of years since I caught the shutter-bug but my favorites so far is my Nikon D90 and my iPhone 4s. The former, obviously because it takes way better pictures but the latter  because is so lightweight and it's all-in-one (phone, camera, games, etc). It's really helpful when you wanna take good pictures but don't want to lug a dslr around :)

For my recent trip to Melbourne, I decided to travel light and was only equipped with my iPhone 4s. In fact, the photos in the last couple of blog posts are all taken with it too. To say it for a fact, I am impressed with the camera function... it is w-a-y better than my old iPhone (the first gen) and the iPad... :)

I love the paint-peeling off the wall kinda effect on this patterned paper... it's awesomely vintage :)

And I do have a thing for turquoise.. I love that colour, somehow.

I have not done a 3 photo layout before. This is my first time doing one. The doilies have been inked as I wanted it to have a bit of colour as opposed to being stark-white against the background. As you can see, I love inking the sides of all the papers... 

This trip to Melbourne was awesome. I met with my aunt & uncle who went to visit and accompany my grandma back, spent time with my grandma, cousins and aunt & uncle who hosted us :) It was a very family-close-to-heart-kinda trip :)

Quirky

Hippity-Hop

I am slowly finding back my creative-side and my mojo after our big move to the US sometime in March. It was floating around in hotels and motels and then finding a place to call our home for the next couple of years, to finally settling in.

Honestly, I said it's a big move because it really is. Whoever said packing and moving is a piece of cake either meant a piece from one huge a*s of a cake or they had plenty of help (or paid movers to do it!)... oh, and the "big move" I meant is the moving-out-of-the-country-kind, not the moving from house-to-house-kinda-moving. They are really different... you have to experience it to know what I'm talking about.

But, I guess, doing it a couple more times will definitely make things easier (chuckles)... yes, I aspire to be like Travelingmama and experience life in many different places :) 

I do know that I have not been keeping this blog alive with interesting or creative feeds for quite a while now (the occasional smattering of low quality posts is really below par.. sorry about that) and I hope this fresh start in the States will also be a fresh start for my blog and my craft. For instance, I have finally started doing more 12x12 layouts, something I don't really do back home. 

I love kangaroos... they are so cute when they hop and these were wild.. I had to creep very near them to capture these shots with my iPhone.. yes, it's taken with the iPhone 4s, so you can imagine how close I was to them. Good thing they did not charge over and punch-kick me! :P

Loving the woodgrain PP

I really do hope my 'readers' will come back and frequent my blog again. I hope it used to be an inspiration for some of you and I hope it will be again. Please do leave me a comment to say 'hi' if you drop by.. don't be shy! 

Quirky

Happy Together

Just printed a bunch of photos yesterday and now I can't wait to create layouts with them. I thought I had edited more than the amount I printed but boy, editing does take time and it's hard work! :)

Made this with SC's May kit. Well, the thickers, leaves and camera were not from the kit, they were from my own stash. I had fun making this. This photo is taken on our recent trip to Melbourne! :)

We were in Werribee park... it was beautiful... vast expanse of greens, a rose garden, a lake and a very beautiful mansion (accompanied by a tragic love story... le sigh)!

I love this pink thickers.. been saving it :P

I really do need to get a proper lamp or study light for crafting. The light in the room is yellow mood lighting and I don't work very well with it.... haha... I need proper white light. It's been fun staying here and we have friends coming over again soon! 

Quirky

Save some, love some! :)

Updated many scrapbooking kits, rub-ons, etc in "Craft Supplies for Sale". Do check it out! Bring home some stuff to love and save some money too! :)

These are just some of the items listed... go click on the tab and check them out now! :)

Quirky

Joy

I wanted to join the July Breakfast Challenge over at Scrap-it-lah but procrastination seems to get the better of me and I only managed to do it now :P

I know it's past midnight and this entry might not be accepted but if that's the case, it's alright too cos I am quite happy that I managed to sit down and come out with this layout :) I hope to be able to complete my wedding scrapbook soon, though.

And here's my Breakfast menu :)

Main dish : Nasi lemak - chipboard/stickers
Side dish : Sambal Sotong - Handwritten journalling
Dessert : Curry puff - rhinestones/crystals
Drinks : Teh O' Ais Limau - my choice of papers



One question though, can someone teach me how to take a good photo of a scrapbook page? I can't seem to get it all in a square screen >.<


Quirky

How about love?

Well, now that I've attempted the chipboard album, it's time I 'embark' to scrapbooking (as intended about, erm, a year ago? :P ).

This is my first scrapbook page and this picture is of my mum and dad. I just love this picture so very much! It was taken on my wedding day. Mummy was arranging the corsage on Daddy's coat and I can just feel the LOVE looking at this picture! :)

I know I am supposed to scrapbook about my wedding but this picture is just too awesome and I have to scrapbook this first! :P

* ya, it's like they stole my thunder, right?*


I followed the sketch over at Scrap-it-lah for this page. Their June challenge sketch, that is. Besides following the sketch,another challenge they pose is to include a handmade flower accent on the page. The flower must be made with paper and button.

I made my first handmade flower :D



What do you think? This is my first try :)



Quirky

My first chipboard album

There's going to be quite a number of pictures because I kinda took a picture of every page :P

Not sure how I was going to share it so I thought why not just post every page up, right? I hope the pictures will not bore you. The crazy sugar-charged squirrel is no longer super-charged. I need a nice, long nap :)
















What do you think? Not too shabby for a first try ya? :)



Quirky