Ashley's tweaked mini album

Seems like I have been doing nothing but mini albums. I just can't help it, cos my kids likes them! And I like making them for friends and relatives !!

Be that as it may, productions are slow in coming cos sometimes I leave the project halfway for weeks and only got back to it when I have a lazy weekend like when we balik kampung to spend the weekend at my FIL's town. And during the weekdays, half the time, we don't even get home till after 9pm, so it's kind of hard to find time.

Anyhow, this is another mini album.





This was supposed to be a mini album to put Ashley's photos. She has been complaining that while her jie jie has rows and rows of photo album adorning the study room, she had none. Not a single one. So I thought I print some pictures of her and make a mini album for her. I have not printed any pictures since she was born. How bad is that?

This is the cover. The paper is so pretty I didn't want to do anything to it. But I probably will mist some flowers or add some prima flowers and blings to it later.



It's a enve album made after I stumbled upon the Paper Trail's tutorial on how to make one.

This is the first page.



There's a flap on the left where you can slot journaling cards into, and the left page fits a 4R photo. The right side fits a 2R photo and there is a good size tag behind the flap where I thought I could add another photo or journal on the back of.



These are the following pages, all with pages for 4R photos on one side and 2R photo on the other and flaps on either side for journaling or more pics.




More flaps, more tags !



This is the last page. It has a pocket which I put a tag with AShley's name on it.

The pink journaling cards inserted between every page are gessoed and distressed with my new toy, the Distres-it-all.



You probably would be wondering why this album is devoid of embellishment or photos. Well, I had thought that I will probably embellish it more after I slot in some photos and make it look more "busy". But before I could do so, Ashley has already claim it for her own and started slotting her paper dolls inside. She also slots bits of stickers and pretty winx club cards.

She now carry this with her when she goes for car ride or when she goes to her ballet school. She would then pull out dolls with their shoes and clothes to play with them when she is bored. So much for a mini album. It has been so tweaked into a paper doll storage album!! *grin*

There is still so much to learn about scrapbooking and I am loving it everyday! Even if I don't get to create, I am happy just to blog hop and get inspired !!

You guys have a great week ahead now! Happy scrapbooking !

I got mail !!

I am no longer thrilled by fluffy mails, since my Ashley has long been toilet trained. But I strained my neck nowadays watching out for parcels of scrapbooking goodies from the postman. Well, technically, from the Pos Laju man, since all parcels are now channeled to them for delivery. I hardly blog about parcels, but this one is worthy of mention.



Firstly, this parcel arrived scarcely one week after I ordered it online! I ordered it on the 28th February and I actually received it on the 8th March, which was 2 days back!! Now is that fast or is that fast? I simply love ordering from this store, collage stuff! They are always so efficient and quick!!

Okay, second reason why this parcel is worthy of mention!! *drum roll please* These are the new stamps from Tim HOltz's CHA 2011 !!

I keep asking our local stores when they are going to come in and they said sometime in March. I supposed having waited for so many weeks since December, I can't wait out that one more month, so there my fingers goes on the keyboard *grin*.

Look at these beauties !!




I really really like this one, The Wild wild west.



Adverts !!



And this one is my absolute favourites. Papillon! Lots of butterflies. My girls are going to love this stamp.



Curiosities. I think this one will work well with the scrapbook I am going to make of my mom and her journey in life with my dad.

Anyhow, this is basically just to share this fabulous site, www.collagestuff.com that has really good customer service and efficient and fast delivery. I am not affiliated to them in any way. Just sharing good stuffs. *grin*

Hand bound books!

I chance upon these pics of hand bound books that I made sometime in October last year and thought I sweep some cobwebs in my blog today by sharing those. It was getting rather dusty in here, wasn't it? *grin*

I have always been fascinated by bookbinding. As a child, I use to sew signatures into pages and bound them into notebooks. I used to beg off pieces of cloths off a paternal aunt twice removed and glue a piece of each as covers for the notebooks. Then I would doodle and paint on those pages. They were my most treasured possession back then, until I got to know the world better and discard those "childish" hobbies. Who would have thought I would venture into these again at this ripe old age?

It all came about when I discovered that my 10 year old loves doodling and drawing. She would draw on stray pieces of papers and old discarded school exercise books. So I thought I make a nice handmade one for her so that I can keep her drawings and scribbles for memories. Handmade stuff has always held its charm to me. Hence my search into "How to bind a book".

My search took me to this blog by Layhoon who had learned bookbinding from a workshop taught by Little Syam. I was fascinated by those hand stitched bound books in LIttle Syam's blog!! Hence my first venture into bookbinding, which in turn led me to my new fascination with scrapbooking and mixed media !

These are some of the books that I learned to stitch. The coptic stitch, the Japanese stab stitch and kettle stitch. I really enjoyed doing stuffs with my hands, and we don't count fingers flying across the keyboard drafting causepapers, sitting in front of that laptop !





This is the coptic stitch.



This is the kettle stitch, which is one of my favourite, cos it's so decorative and archaic looking. And this here below is the hemp stitch, the simplest of all.




I bought some ribbons and frills to dress up the notebooks but didn't get a chance to do it till I got home.

Sasha will probably recognise these ribbons *grin* Most of my minibooks and albums has some of her ribbons on them.

I brought some more supplies from Little Syam to practice at home. Unfortunately, those are still sitting at my shelves. Haven't found time to do any more yet. But I had found making a hand stitch bound book a satisfying pursuit.

My 10 yr old Kimberly always carry one in her backpack when we go out nowadays. She has a handmade journal and a scrapbooked notebook. I think she has gotten into the habit of scribbling thoughts and reminders in school and dooddling and drawing in them when we are out. She also stuck ephemera that she found around her room into her scrapbook, like a letter from her friend, Misha received 2 years back, of which she was too lazy to think of where to keep, so she simply glued the envelope onto her scrapbook. Will share her 2 handmade books later if time permit.

For those with kids who like to scribble a lot, these are very good options for a child to nurture his or her inspirations if you don't fancy buying a store bought sketchpad.

You guys have a great week ahead now. Happy Thaipusam to those who are celebrating!!

My very first layout

I thought I would make an attempt to do a layout after a bout of making nothing but tags and notebooks and mini albums. I had not attempted one before because of thought of filling out a 12 inch by 12 inch empty space to make it aesthetically easy on the eyes seems so intimidating!!

I had prepared myself for a mind block and a 2 hour task. Suprisingly, it wasn't that daunting after all. I was pleased that for a first attempt, this took me less than an hour, about half an hour perhaps? Once I got going, things just seems to flow.




This is Ashley on her kindergarten concert doing a Korean dance in her Korean costume.

I love how she obediently cast her eyes down demurely the whole entire performance (almost) just because their teacher instructed them to. I had thought that this was so adorable.




And I just love the rolling camera, the "Take one, cut" board, the negatives and the film strips. I cut the rolling camera, the negatives strips and the take out board out from another patterned paper and paste them on here. And doesn't those reading scripts just tickles you to bits?






Her original stage has flowers and picket fences in front. So I cut out a fence with Tim Holtz's "on the fence" die. If the paper looks familiar to you, it's the paper backing that comes with the packaging on which the prima flowers are glued on.

Since I cut off the flowers on her stage from her photo in order to fit the page, I added back some flowers and floral elements wherever I could to enhance her stage. The glitters from the ribbons gives an illusion of glamour on the stage.

On another note, my darling 9 going to ten Kimberly made this birthday card for me with the help of Teacher Jessy. Isn't she adorable?





She told Teacher Jessy that it was my birthday ( a few days back) and she wanted to make a card for me. Wasn't that sweet of Jessy to help her?

a Shabby Chic book

My next project after Kimberly's notebook was another notebook out of scrapbooking materials for my "baby" sister, Cecilia. She is bubbly, funny and compassionate and is truly a beautiful person inside out. I made a shabby chic one for her.

She loves shopping and travels a lot.

So, shoes and handbags for her..





..with postcard and stamps....




She can adhere photos or notes of importance on top of the pages.

I thought it's also a good idea to provide lots of pockets, slits and folds that she can stuffs receipts and stubs into.

So I attached a paper clip on top of this page....




and made a pocket here...



and here ....




I made some bookmarks for her to mark pages with.

This one above has a postcard bookmark in the pocket.

This one below is another pocket made out of tags. I slot another bookmark with tassels and a distressed look inside the tag.





Made another fun tag for her out of left over scrap papers.




More pages for her to stuff any ephemera that she may want to keep. I add an elastic band on this page for slotting tickets or stubs.



This is the back of the same page.



This page was supposed to have an envelope with a closure which she can keep things safely. But I thought this looks prettier without the envelope hiding the pretty shoes, so I left it blank.



Lastly, I added several pages of kraft papers for her to scrawl on.

I finished this yesterday at 3 a.m and had ink stains all over my fingers. I hope she likes this when she receives it.

Halloween crop party!!

Kimberly and Ashley attended a Halloween crop party for kids last week at Scrap-N-Crop !

I have been looking forward to this for ages, ever since Val suggested to Rose a few months back that Rose should conduct one for kids for Halloween!! And if it's led by Rose, I just know that there will a lot of goodies lined up for kids! *grin*

Rose Lynch is an experienced teacher who is very very good with kids AND who has been scrapbooking for more than 30 years. And did I mention that she is very good with kids?

Ashley wanted to dressed up as a princess *what else?”.



She chose her favourite red velvet and satin Disney princess gown over the Ariel mermaid costume, pink Piglet costume, the tiger stripey suit with the tiger’s hood, the moo cow suit with the moo cow hood and her school concert’s elaborate Korean dance costume.

Kimberly’s costume was easier to decide.

She has only to choose between her red satin sequined top and matching red satin Arabic pants from her school concert, Aladdin, of last year, and Disney’s costume, a Princess Jasmine costume.

She chosed to dress as Jasmine, the Arabian princess, complete with her Arabian pointy satin pink shoes.








There is a couple of witches .....








and a bear cub.....



(snitched these from Rachel's blog )










But all the other girls who came for the Halloween party ALL came as princesses too! So what else is new? Hahahahaha!




The kids came away with this cool album which had their pictures on them.




Kimberly completed hers in no time, all thanks to Rose’s foresight that kids won’t have very long attention span and she had actually stuck double sided tapes all ready on most of the embellishment to ease the path for the kids !!






The event surpassed my expectation. Rose keeps dishing up treats after treats!!!




Halfway through, the kids get cool treats of skull candies, nougat and sweets in a pumpkin mini trick or treat carrier.



Here's a clearer skull.



There is a tag hung on every chair for every kid, to hang on their door, on their chair, or to decorate their room with. Kimberly hung hers over the handle of her backpack, Ashley hung hers around her neck.




There is a little notebook on the table where the kids can add on more papers and use them as a notebook to scribble stuffs on. Well, at least, that’s what Kimberly did with hers.




And placed on the table, each kid get their own scrap-n-crop kit.



The closure on the kit is a cute little pumpkin jingle bell with maple leaf. Rose told the kids that that can be used as an embellishment for the completed album on the album cover. Now is that cool or is that cool?



On every table, there are also scattering of laminated characters that kids get to take home to work their imagination on. Kimberly used hers as bookmarks after attaching ribbons on them.

And the kids even get to take home a party pack which is another complete set of scrapbooking kits which they can set to do on their own at home! How cool is that?




They were served cupcakes, breaded sausages on sticks, mini samosas, hmmm…I can’t remember. All I remember is this 3 tiered tray with kids friendly finger food. Haha! I was busy finishing up those cupcakes which Ashley licked the icing off!






Needless to say, after the workshop, the kids spend the next 3 hours playing games, chasing after each other, playing hide and seek and literally screamed the place down, after they demolished the cupcakes, of course!




Despite the racket, they were a rather well behaved bunch too. Nothing on shelves got jostled or tumbled down. Haha! But I was still apprehensive about my kids everytime it got too quiet, like when they asked from Valerie or Valerie's mom permission to play upstairs. It's a mom's thing. If it get too quiet, you get worried.

After the party, they get to bring a pumpkin home each.




Both Kimberly and Ashley had fun!!!

They were so exhausted that they dozed off in the car on the way to meet Chinnee, Zara and Zaria's mom , Hui Nih and Syn Dee ...sorry girls that I fong fei kei.

Back to parties, I heard that Rose may be leading another event for kids this coming Christmas as well. I sure hope so. If there is, I sure am looking forward to that one. *grin*