Summer Time Goodness!

Hey Peeps!!

It's my turn to write up a post on the TGF blog today! It's such an honor for me to be a part of this wonderful community!!

TGF has been the start of my stamp hobby/ obsession/ "job." And so, it give me such great pleasure to be in its Print & Cut Design Team! Especially since I'm a scrapbooker as well!!

Today, I've got projects to showcase the Summer Time Print & Cut & Digis kit! I made a lay-out and a card.



If you didn't know, it is always hot in Arizona! We've got family and friends there so we are always visiting! The kit's elements are perfect for this page, don't ya think?



And here's my card. I printed two digi Ians (came with the kit), and made one smaller than the other to represent my boys. (uggh, please ignore the rough shading on the faces... I think I need new nibs on my Copics!). I see from social media that everyone's at the beach but we haven't been yet so here's an inspiration!! :)



Hope you get to check out SuiLan, Cynthia, and Claudette's creations too!!!

Summertime Kit!

Good Monday morning, friends!

Today is The Greeting Farm's release of its new Print and Cut kit -- Summertime. This kit also comes with not one, but TWO digital stamps... an Anya AND an Ian!!!!

Am super excited about this kit because it is truly perfect for the season! For my first project showcasing it, I made a card using lots of its elements. Pretty much all of the items are from the kit except the cardstock and the two background patterned papers.



Is it super hot where you are at right now?? Luckily, here in the SF Bay Area, the weather has been in the 70s and 80s. Not too hot, not too cold. In fact, I was just complaining to my sister how cold it was last night when we were going to the movies. Anyway, doesn't Anya look cute in her bathing suit / summer 'fit and 'do?



My second project (above) is a scrapbook lay-out based on those three small pics taken circa 2012. Love those Instagram photos of my family. For the base of the lay-out, I did some water-coloring mimicking the colors of the kit.

I really love the banner and balloon parts! Had to include them on my debut project.

Hope you get to visit the TGF blog and the Print & Cut DT's blogs -- we are joined by the lovely Kristina Werner. She's got a wonderful video on her post about how to use the kit with your silhouette. The other peeps who have amazing creations are Claudie, Cynthia, and Sui-Lan!

We also have a blog hop going on, and you can win this kit!!

From the TGF blog:

Time for the our Blog Hop, check out all our blogs where you will find more creations from the Print and Cut Design Team including Kristina. Comment on each blog and hop back here to let us know you’re done. That is it! One random winner will be selected, and win the Summertime kit! Be sure to finish the hop by tomorrow night (June 17th) at 11:30 (PST). The winner will be announced on June 18! Good luck to all!

Good-luck to y'all!!

More than just an Easter kit!

Good Monday morning to you all!!

Today, I've got a couple of projects to show you using The Greeting Farm's current File Cut kit - Hoppy Easter. Now, I know Easter is just around the corner, but the Design team wanted to show you how versatile this kit could also be!

For our creations this week, we were to make non-Easter related projects. I have a lay-out featuring my fam:




I basically just layered and mixed the journal cards and as a result, a "patterned paper" emerged! Trying to tie in the graphic lay-out of the pics for this one.



For my second showcase, I have a card featuring Easter Bean, which is a digital stamp exclusive to this kit. I also included some more components of the kit... you really could come up with lots of different combinations!



Easter Bean's hat was actually a bunny, but to get away from the Easter vibe, I altered the ears to make it look more bear-ish. The thought behind it was to make her look Kawaii-ish, and so the main sentiment was formed! There are lots of people like me, afterall. I am in my 30s, still loving Sanrio! Hey, you gotta have a fun side, am I right? Plus, I've always been for cutes-y things!!



I did cut out the Easter egg she was holding and was going to draw a ball, but it turned out oval anyway. LOL!!

Hope you all get to view the other girlies' blogs! Claudette, Cynthia, and Sui-Lan have great ideas on the challenge! And don't forget to tell us on the TGF blog about projects you've created using this kit. We'd love to include it on the next post!!

Toot-a-loo!!

Making Flairs at Some Odd Girl.

Hey, how's it going?

Today, I am featured at the Some Odd Girl blog, and I wrote up the Tutorial Post on Making Flairs.  If you don't scrapbook or are not quite familiar with flairs, here is an example from Skipping 5:



They make great embellishments for crafty projects, not only scrapbook lay-outs, but cards and altered items as well.  They kind of remind me of bottle caps in a way.  They are round, thick, and are very cute.

You can personalize and make your own using a flair maker.  But if you don't have hundreds of dollars to spend, you can also try these cheaper, similar alternatives.  What's good is you probably have these items in your craft room already.

You will need some round, epoxy stickers.  Or Glossy Accent glue.  Or the Epiphany button maker (I have Round 20 shown here) and its coordinating buttons.




Gather up some Some Odd Girl images. I've used the clear critter stamps from Hey Kaylee and Gwen in Bloom and the swirls from Artist Mae.  I also shrunk a digital stamp - Tropical Mae, and will be using her top half.  You can leave the image uncolored, color them, stamp them on patterned paper, color the background, etc.  So many different options!



The easiest ones are the stickers, of course.  Just line up and cut away!



For the glossy accent, squeeze the glue on the middle and do not stop to prevent air bubbles.  Also, less is more!



Here's what it looks like:



I ended up going over the part I wanted for Tropical Mae below, so i let it dry (8 hours overnight), and traced a circle on the back and proceeded to cut it out.  I ended up cutting into the glue part as well.



Follow the instructions on the Epiphany button maker, which includes lining up image through that hole in the middle. 



I decided to make a scrapbook lay-out that would house my flairs.  I am very much into ink splatter right now.




And this is the finished product:



Added some star glitter and washi tape with Super Tobie.  And of course, pics of the little tater tots in their SuperHero raincoats! 



Aren't the flairs a nice addition to all the backyard fun?  I love how they're different sizes as well!





Hope you enjoyed it!  SOG is having a whole week of tutorials so make sure you stop by everyday! 

Snorkle Tobie in Hawaii!

Good Monday mornin' to ya! On my neck of the woods, it's not quite a Manic Monday since I'm off! LOL!

Today launches Some Odd Girl's featured digi - Snorkle Tobie. Snorkle Tobie will be on sale for 35% off for the next two weeks so go grab him! He's perfect for your summer adventures!

I decided to do something a bit different and use him on a scrapbook layout. It's been awhile since I did one of those! Here's MK on the beach of Waikiki from a couple of years ago. Doesn't he look so cute, still so chunky and small?!



And look at that smirky facial expression, hahahahaha!!!! Love it!!

See you tomorrow for more SOG fun!

Scrapping with my Favorite Celebrities!

The other day, I had the privilege of taking classes from these two:



I know, right??

You must be like, "SHUT UP!" or "No Way!"

But it is true!

My Local Scrapbook Store (LSS) Our Paper Place hosted a workshop led by the wonderful Kelly Purkey and Amy Tangerine.

They just happen to be my most favorite scrappers!!! I stalk, errr, read their blogs all the time! Love KP's graphic style and honesty. I am inspired by Amy's free/ easy-going art and openness!



When we were introducing ourselves to the class, I said that when I first started in the craft, I had wished there were more of these two lovelies out there. I was young, single, had lots of friends and went on lots of outings. But I always longed to find connection with the famous scrapbookers. They were Caucasian and always scrapped about families and kids. Don't get me wrong, there's totally nothing wrong with that and I could still relate. But when you're in your teens/ early twenties and you're trying to find yourself, well... let's just say something was missing for me when I looked at magazines or blogs. For a long time, I had scrapped about my friends, my dreams, even about clothes! :)

So, along came these two young Asian women and I am really digging their work! Of course, now I'm no longer in my twenties and am married with two kids. But I still love to scrap about my BFFs, my designer purses, and food at restaurants (LOL!). And that's what I love about this hobby! There's such a wide range of products and styles and celebrities!

Anyway, enough yapping....






The first and third lay-outs were taught by Amy. The second one was from Kelly. Pardon the watermarks -- I'm not quite used to FlickR's Aviary (bye bye Picnik, I'm so sad!). I thought I put them at the bottom. And the third one doesn't have pics on it yet. Do you spy the TGF stamp I used? :)

I'll be blogging about the mini-albums we did tomorrow!

Cheers!

Project Life 2012 - Cover Page

When I started scrapbooking in high school (aka the mid-'90s), I just wanted to save and showcase all of my pictures and mementos. Out of all my friends and families, I had always been the one to take the pics at parties, the one to document each event, may it be big or small. I saved everything. From restaurant business cards to someone's graffiti drawing, I kept them all and somehow used them as my scrapbook decorations.

Fast forward to the early 2000's, and I discovered Creative Memories. And patterned paper. And embellishments made specifically for scrapbooking. I also learned about acid free stuff.

I have always enjoyed scrapping -- the designing of a page, the show-casing of photos, the preserving of memories. But I have never been able to keep up. There are so many gaps in my documentation, so many months or even years. I always wanted to be my best at creating a lay-out, so if the mojo was not there, I would stop. And of course, true life got in the way. Let's face it, in order to make memories, you gotta live them right?

When I first heard about Project Life, I was very hesitant. I thought it was too different, too restrictive. I wasn't used to just adding photos or cards in pockets to make a page. But then, I started seeing finished pages and realizing that this simple way was very similar to what made me fall in love with the craft almost 15 years ago. I'll get to save my mementos again...who gives a crap (pardon moi) if they're not acid-free?? From what I've heard, it's very doable. And what finally sold me is that I'll get to document the everyday stuff. Such a seller because for me, I have wanted to slow down the time when I started having kids.

Anyway, before I start to bore you (if I haven't already done so), here's my cover page. I chose the Clementine kit and added some washi tapes and a Maya Road chip board.








I love this video:

Cuties!

I am not very good at taking pictures of scrapbook lay-outs. I'm too short to just take it from above when it's on the floor. The photographs are usually blurry or too washed out. I'm thinking that investing in a new camera lens would help. Although to tell you the truth, any excuse will do to spend more money on my photography, LOL!

Up there is my third lay-out from the class I took (taught by Amy Tangerine).

It features my and some of my college group's kids! The title is pretty generic, but if you look closely, I stamped the letters with some brown ink :). Cool how the pattern comes out, huh?

Hope you're all having fun during these few days left before the Holiday Season! There's so much I want to do but alas, time won't allow it. I wish there were 30 hours during the day this time of the year. Of course, only on my days off, not on :). Haha!

Hugs,

A Slice of the Good Life.

When I took Amy T's class, I wasn't very prepared. I just grabbed a bunch of old pics and prayed that they would somehow fit the pages we were going to make.

I was pretty lucky because these photographs from a trip to paradise were perfect for the lay-out I had in mind. I didn't change much from Amy's original design because I really love how her page came out:



Sorry to blog and run! I must finish my Holiday shopping while I still have a chance! Hope you are all having a stellar day!

Life Is Good!

Here's one of the four lay-outs I made at the class that Amy Tangerine taught.

I pretty much copied her design and sketch, but changed up the flowers and embellies.

Here's a pic of her LO:



The pic is of my two sisters and our friend, J. We had gone to Hawaii and was at a luau at sunset. The water was just beautiful and I just had to get a shot of it. I've been to four of the Hawaiian islands and I think the luau at Paradise Cove in Oahu is still my favorite.

The title of this page was perfect for the pic. I feel so grateful and blessed to be able to travel and see so many beautiful places! Can't wait to see more of the world :).

I love the colors of this page and the layering as well! I also loved incorporating fabric! So happy I'm getting to scrap :).

I plan to write a bit of journaling on the tag. I always forget to write the date and now when I look back on my older work, I have a hard time remembering when the picture was taken. If anything, I need to journal a bit on the back of the page.

Have a wonderful one!

Long Time, No Talk!

**** Please go HERE for my Craft Room ReDo Blog Candy. ****





Hi all! Long time, no talk!

Am still trying to find my groove in the blog world so pardon me if I'm late commenting on your posts! :)

But I have a couple of days off and am hoping to catch up!

I never posted a Sunday FlashBack this week so I'm posting this lay-out that I never showcased on my blog (I did on SIS TV).

It was from 2006, the first time my then-bf-now-hubby and I went to Hawaii. This was scanned ....pardon the line you see going across!

Most of the supplies used were from Love, Elsie (KI Memories). Hope you're having a great day! I'm hoping to craft tomorrow!

Tonight, I'm planning to see Breaking Dawn with some of my besties and we're also having an early Holiday get2gether! Anybody else watching the midnight showing?

Hugs,

Sunday Flashback - tribute to my hubby

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to pop in and say Happy Birthday to my DH! Here's a LO from around 2006-2007.

We are on a mini fam getaway to celebrate this and one last hurrah before I go back to work.

Of course, what it says up there isn't entirely true. I know my way around a computer now! :). In fact, I'm typing up the rest of this post on my phone. Sorry, no links though!

XO!

PS. Love me some BamPop and the tag is from Creative Imagination Project (I think that's what it's called- sadly, they went out of business!). I believe the supplies are from a scrapbooking kit from Story of My Life.

Innocence of Childhood

*sings (again) It's just another Manic Monday, oh-wo-oh. I wish it was Sunday. Cuz that's my fun day!****

Any of you watch The Sing-Off? I've been on an 80's kick ever since they did the guilty pleasures episodes last week. I've been seeing "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" and that Flashdance song all weekend! My sons and hubby are sick of 'em, he he!

Well, am sad to say that I didn't get any crafting done this weekend (boo). It's such a therapeutic thing for me to do. I really enjoy my ME time, like most of you could relate. It's my escape from the daily grind of life. I really needed it this weekend because there were lots of drama (uggh). But I won't get into that here...no need for extra negativity.

I did, however, get lots of cleaning and purging done in my craft room. For those of you who didn't know, we moved into this house over a year ago but I'm only getting to my craft room this month. I'm actually very excited because we got new furniture for it. I've been scrapping/ crafting for over a decade and it's my first time having a room dedicated to my hobby. I've always managed to just live out of those giant tupperware bins & craft wherever it's convenient, be it our coffee table or the couch.

Anyway, I found lots of stuff to throw away, get excited about, and donate. I'll be donating a lot to the play room at work -- I work at a hospital and there's a room specifically for kids to play and make art projects in. I also put aside a lot of stuff for a future blog candy -- things I never used, got duplicates of, or "vintage" goodies (a.k.a. "older" stuff)that are just delicately used. Stay tuned!

I also got to take pics of lay-outs for my Sunday FlashBack projects. I'm cheating here and posting about one now even though it's Monday. I just love these pages and couldn't wait to share them again.



The little girl is one of my dearest friend M's daughter. I've watched her grow up, and she is such a darling little girl, beautiful on the inside as well as the outside. So talented and smart and funny like her mama. We had taken a trip to Lake Tahoe and got to stay at our friend's cabin.

What I love about this lay-out is how simple it is (compared to my usual style). I made use of negative space. I adore the pic of I's playing in the sand and water, such a tender moment of innocence and fun. I took these pics with a film camera (gasp! it had been four years ago!) and ordered the sepia tone for both a dramatic and subdued effect, does that make sense? LOL.



I got the supplies from a kit, although I don't remember which one. The papers are from Sassafras and I just really liked how I included a puka-shell necklace. The sequined border is awesome and the title was inspired from the movie that came out that year.



Here's another l.o. of I, this time very different although the papers are from the same line and brand. The touches of red in the B & W pics were cool, I thought. I really do miss taking pictures with film. Alice's blog really inspires me to do it again.

This page is a bit busier but still has the same effect, I thought. I am sure rocking that white pen, haha!

This post has gotten longer than I intended. Thanks for reading this far. One more thing I wanted to add... I have posted about these lay-outs before, but just didn't get to highlight them. They were shown with multiple cards and other pages -- thought I'd share again with a bit of explanation :).

If you are curious, here are the old posts (click for the first one and the second one).

See you back here tonight for this week's Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Challenge.

Cheerio,