Saturday, May 30, 2009

Happily Crafting the Day Away

It is so therapeutic to craft the day away. Hubby was so sweet to look after E while J, of course, needed no looking after but was out of the house before noon.
I delved into the projects and completed four of them in succession, getting glue-y and inky and losing track of them. Some frustrating moments though ... like getting a bookboard cut. And finding out too late that the thickness of my ruler is a hair shy of one-eighth inch. The realisation (why didn't I verify before I started gluing things down!) came when the box cracked during assembly. Sigh ... I managed to patch it with some bookbinding tape and I hope it stays in place.
The lighting is terrible and I won't be able to take any photos for now. But if you want to know what they "should" look like, visit Club Scrap.

Big Mail Day

This came in the mail today.

Goodies galore and eight projects enclosed.

I'm going to play.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Coupon Holder

I had this idea brewing in my head for a few days and finally I had a chance to realise it last night. Using some pretty papers, I made this:


2 pockets per side to put shopping coupons and vouchers.

I used 7 different patterned papers, 6 measuring 8"x7" and one smaller piece for the shaped pocket. The finished piece measures 8" by 3.5" when closed.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Bedtime

Some time later, I'll probably look back and miss this, but tonight, I'm proud to say E fell asleep for the first time without lying on my tummy. I know she'll shed these habits gradually. I just want to remember them as they are now:

Our typical night-time routine involves her asking anyone and everyone to bring her "-stairs" or "bring (E to) mama". She'll watch one of three Sesame Street video clips (1, 2, 3)over and over again until both mama and daddy have bathed, at which time she'll instruct daddy to "make milk".

The milk bottle has to be shaken by nearly everyone before she'll scramble into bed and wait. She'll squint her eyes and clasp her hands while mama says grace. She'll repeat "Amen" until given the bottle.

Once the milk is consumed, she'll want all the lights off, the ipod music on and mama to sing. Her current favourites include This is My Commandment ("Ment"), Glory to the Lamb ("Glory"), King of Kings and Lord of Lords ("King"), Oh Lord Our Lord ("Oh Lord"), and Bibbedi Bobbedi Boo ("Bi Boo").
Prayers - she decides who to pray for - followed by more songs and nonsense conversations such as pointing at my eyes, "eye bow", all my moles.

She might hear daddy in the kitchen, and she'll announce "daddy make mama milo". She'll wait for me to finish my drink, and I must show her the empty cup, before making room for me on her bed.
Tonight, she plopped herself on my tummy, asked for her "-ket" and after a while, slid off me and drifted off to sleep.

Discounts

The shopping special at MWL is ending soon. I told myself that if I get a 40% coupon, I'll get one of these:
photo from WRMK site
Yes, I did get one today. Now I'm happily chomping away at various things!
I still have some 30%, 25% and 20% discount coupons which will expire on Sunday ... Looking forward to June for the great Singapore sale.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Nothing New

Not really ...
Been packing some shelves, moving the dust around. Not quite ready to throw stuff out, which is what's really needed in order to calm the chaos. I'm procrastinating under the guise of organising.
I'm also catching up on podcasts and blogs. Sigh ... I've got 1133 left to go...

E has been speaking a lot. I'm surprised she's learnt "Mine" vs "Yours": This is my bed, where's yours? And she'll point to her bed and then palm to chest "Mine!" She's also parroting us in Cantonese and Mandarin too. This might be a good chance to surround her with a variety of languages and words.

I've been working part-time for 18 months. It's good to spend time at home with the girls. I didn't have that chance 12 years ago. Despite the sacrifices this entails, I believe it is the best arrangement for everyone. My parents need their personal time and they don't have the same energy and health as 12 years ago. I guess this will continue for a few more years.

The weekend is almost here for everyone else, although mine can be considered to have started. Have a good weekend!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Played with paints

These are homework from Celine's layout class last Saturday. It was really out of the box for me to get messy. But liberating!
Here's where we learned how to "photoshop" unwanted bits of the photo away. Love the resulting golden glow!
Loads of masking tape here. Yeah, I o-d'ed on gold paint here! I think I'll do up a bunch and decorate the wall along the stairwell with some "lobby art".

Okay, I hid the "crying clouds" as they were so out of place for this layout. And the photo alteration will work on home printed photos, but you don't get the golden glow, just a sticky patch of original white glossy paper.
Love the velvet ribbons and felt flowers!!

Yay!! All homework completed, teacher Celine!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Mini album and a quick layout

Consider this done, cos I don't intend to journal in it.
Oops, the "E" got stuck to itself. I've fixed it with a bit of transparency at the back.





A quick and simple layout: ribbon, flowers (MR and Jillibean), pin (MM), discarded CD, stamped image and stickers (Club Scrap).

Battle of Wills

Sigh... The troubling trauma of teaching a toddler tidiness. It became an hour-long battle:
Keep
No keep
Keep
No keep
Mama help you keep
No keep
Keep the rest
No ... and what's already tidied goes onto the floor to create an even bigger mess than before.
Sigh... I will need a double-chocolate-fudge-ice-cream to recover from this.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Metal Album

Celine's classes were uber fun.
Here's one of the album. I bound the pages into 3 signatures with ribbons and attached metallic beads at the ends.


I sandwiched the crepe paper ribbons between cardstock pages. Doing this also made the pages more sturdy.
I layered different sizes within each signature.
The crepe paper ribbons were white, which I didn't like. So I spritzed and inked and squirted ... and of course ... got my hands inky and dirty again. THAT's half the fun!
I'm 2 photos short for completing the other album. And the layouts are not titled yet. Will post pics soon.

Friday, May 8, 2009

I Finished Another Layout

and it's totally not what I started out doing!
Used the cheery Lime Rickey papers. These quirky birds can grow on you.
Love the blings! The red and turquoise combination is popping up everywhere.
I wanted to do a few blooms with these shaped petals. Ended up using them to frame the photo.

Bye bye to another scrapbooking staple

Another magazine bites the dust.

Hey hubby, I really HAVE to save those magazines now.

Some quick layouts

from this week:
Saved this Paper Element pp for a long time ...
Love the Jillibean felt flowers. And those are Kaiser blings in the centre.
Some silly poses when I was bored at work. Shhhh... this was before 8 am okay!
On this and the earlier layout, I experimented with "anti-layering" - creating texture without adding bulk. To be exact, I removed a layer from the pp by sticking a strip of tape on the paper and ripping it off, exposing the white core for journalling.
Black lettering on b/w paper not showing up too well - a touch of Hambly always saves the day.

Working on another layout. Hope to finish it this weekend. But not before Celine's Workshops at MWL!!! Woohooo!!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Played with Actopus to Zelephant.
Are those leaves or bushes or trees or giant tulips? You decide!
Cute bunny. And these chipboards are fantastic! Double-sided and the surface is laminated.

Another random layout using old photos and old supplies. Love the Colorbok Sticky Alphas. I'm currently experimenting with depth, rather than height, in the layouts, by adding a complementary piece of paper behind punched holes.
I used to get frustrated when I get a halo from stamping on uneven surfaces like layered papers.
Problem solved by stamping on the background without the beige paper and separately stamping on the paper. Then layer the paper on the background, aligning the stamped images.

Happy Mail Day Again

Look what else was in the mailbox the same day!!