What up?!

I just love this photos of Brianna. She's only 2half and she poses like a pro! I don't really like taking photos of myself alot and I have no idea where she learns all this posing things. From the tv programs she watches I think. So here's one with a "Smile for Me!"
This one here is a little sneak of a private class that I'll be teaching end of April. Any of you interested in a private class for yourself and friends, your company, do feel free to come on down to Laines and ask for more info. The classes can be tailored for your preference and we will come down to your prefered place at no extra cost for manpower! Good deal huh?!

Am I playing with my phone too much?! What's up?!? Heeheehee! Okie, here's what I've been up to recently. There's this really lovely Melissa Frances album that I'm doing for a kit for sale at Laines. It works this way. I create the album, pack a kit full of goodies that will go into the making of this album and sell it for this really fantastic price! Good deal right?! Hey! I seem to be making alot of good deals recently! Hahaha! Enjoy!

Even the inside of the albums are decorated! There are enough goodies in the pack for you to do this too! Especially if you need a project urgently and you don't have enough time to do it! Like for a special anniversary, Mother's Day, etc. This is something that can be completed in a snap! You can take pics too if you buy the kit!

A little something using MME

Promised a blog post on MME and new CHA stuff. I actually got off my lazy butt and came up with a layout!! (Okok, that's coz MME had this competition and promised 3 complete sets of their newest line helped moved that butt!!)

CHA Goodies!

I know I know! Not supposed to tempt anyone anymore right?! But I really am so happy with what I've been given that I really cannot resist it anymore! Check out the sneekies!These MME stuff are just gorgeous! I have always loved MME's papers and bellies. I am still hoarding their things from like 3 years ago!

Glitz has some really nice stickers and even though the colours are not some of my favourite (too bright pink liao!) they are still lovely for making cards and layouts for little girls!
There's actually more stuff in my pack but my camera died out on me coz I didnt charge it for 2 weeks! So there! I'll post up more stuff once I get the camera charged and by then, I may have come up with a layout and some cards too! (not likely but I'll try hard!)

Perth is really beautiful!

I have been to Australia quite a number of times, but never thought of Perth till now. My brother rented a huge bungalow and invited us along. Naturally, we thought that was a good deal coz we were saving alot on accommodation.
"But.... Perth???!!! That's a really boring place!!"
However, we still thought that we should just go along because of the free accommodation.....
Today.... our 5th day in Perth......
I am utterly bowled over by the serenity and stark beauty of the place. Western Australia is larger that the whole of Western Europe and yet there are only 2 million people living here! Amazing ain't it?! There's 4 million people in Singapore and we fit just nicely into one of their lakes here!! Oh gosh! Even on days that are supposedly "crowded", to us, it seems like a nice stroll through Singapore malls on a really super quiet weekday morning! The only gripe I have is that the shops close really early even in summer.
The sun here is super duper HOT! Humidity is so low here that it's not uncomfortable. But the sun is so hot that the moment you are in it, you start to burn! However, the interesting thing is that the moment you find shade, the wind that blows is actually cooling! Unlike in SG, the weather is hot, sticky, humid and the wind is hot, sticky and humid too! Morning and evening gets quite cold. About 18 to 20 deg cel.
There are actually quite alot of things to do here. We have been to the beautiful and famed Swan Valley (I always want to say Swan Lake!!) and had chocolates, nuts, wine and bought the whole works too!! There's the Caversham Wildlife park where the kids ran wild and petted kangaroos, koalas, ducks (yes ducks too!), fed them and chased them all over the place! They watched the mandatory sheep shearing show and watched the dogs herd sheep. They even fed bottles of milk to newborn lamb! (Silly little things!) Brandon milked the cow and fed the donkey and llama and declared that they felt soft and had no teeth!! (They have! They just used their lips to pick the food and not their teeth!)
Then we went to Hillary's boat harbour and visited the famed (AGAIN!) AQWA aquarium. It was comparable to the one in SG, Sentosa. In fact, I think we had more fun here coz it was super interactive and there were outdoor and indoor exhibits. The undersea creatures were quite different from those that are in Underwater World in Sentosa. We saw creatures unique to the Australian sealife. Brandon was fascinated and Brianna was, for once, stunned to silence. She was so excited about all the exhibits and wanted to touch everything and anything! After that wonderful experience, we went to Adventure Park and let Brandon bounce on a huge trampoline for 20 over minutes!! His thigh was so sore that he could not walk the next day! Hahahaha!
We have also been to MacNuts Australia and Milbrooks Winery in Rockingham. MacNuts was where we all went NUTS!! Literally! My sister in law went nuts and bought $300 plus AUD in Maccadamia nuts! I was saner and grabbed only a modest $150AUD. Hee hee hee! Then, we proceeded to this beautiful winery cally Millbrooks Winery. It was the most gorgeous place! The surrounding was peaceful, the vineyard was lovely, the lake was crystal... What more? One thing spoilt our experience though. The staff there was not very friendly and they didn't bother to entertain us. They gave the other Australians (or other ang mos) free wine and friendly service but ignored us totally! So we ignored them too and took lots of pictures, used their toilets and left without spending a single cent! Hahahaha!
Then there was Mandurah where the rich lived! We took a ferry ride, ostensiously to watch dolphins. But it turned out to be a trip to see how the rich lived by the lake/riverway/water/sea. There were hundreds of gorgeous homes built by the lake/riverway/water/sea and they all faced the water. It was mouthwatering to see but impossible to afford. There was even a Singaporean couple who have a holiday home there and the pilot pointed it out to us! After the ride, we walked along the broadwalk and watched the seagulls and ducks. The wind that blew in was cold and we were all shivering even though the sun was beating down relentlessly. It was so confusing for our bodies that we finally decided the shopping strip was more suitable for our city adapted bodies and mind.
We have yet to visit all the other places we have planned. We are planning to go Fremantle to see the markets, prision. We want to go Scarbourough to walk along the beach and eat ice lollies. There's also Rottnest Island where the wild creatures there roam free. And not forgetting the big Perth city center where shopping and dining abounds!
Well, that's the gist of the first 4 days of our Perth trip. There'll be more to come!
Hey hey! Not forgetting that there are countless scrapbook shops here and their shopping malls like Target and Kmart have scrapbook stuff too! I have already bought so many clear stamps and punches I'm not sure how to bring it back! Some things are cheaper here and some things are unique only to Australia. I tell myself not to be greedy and buy only stuff that's available only here in Australia......................... Urghhhh! The mind is willing................... But the heart is soooooooo weak...............

Christmas Countdown @ Laines & Papermarket!!

Today's my "day" of the Christmas Blog Post at Laines & Papermarket. There's only 6 of the beautiful post it notes today so be the first to rush down and get your free gift! And do some Christmas shopping too with our fabulous deals and fantastic products!
Come on down now! What are you waiting for??

Cheers!
Shirley

More stuff for an already overcrowded space!!

I know that I've already posted most of these on Shopping Saturday but I still feel the need to post it on my own blog simply cos I really really love the recent stuff that came in!!! I went totally bonkers and bought sooooo much stuff. AGAIN!! Even the rest of the retail staff are shaking their heads at me. They probably think I need to have my head checked!! Wahahahaha!
Lookie here! Who in the world can resist THIS??!! It's a mini Peek-A-Book album by Melissa Frances. I'm not a huge fan but this time round, her stuff made me want to scream and tear out my hair!
This is the mini onesies from GLitz Design. Many many many pieces came in. But 2 days later, many many many pieces also went out!! Lovely aren't they?!

Again, I could not resist the stickers by K&Co. They are pretty reasonably priced and so as usual, I let my heart rule my wallet. Isn't it a beauty?!

Don't even ask how many I bought!!! So many that when I paid, I used cash so that there will be NO TRACE!! I sacrificed my lunch for several days for this leh!!

I just hope the husband is not reading this. He sometimes does...

Ok, will go play more mahjong and hope that I will win enough money for more stuff!!!!!!! (hopelessly addicted)

A very Interesting Candle/Flower Holder

Have not been blogging for some time. AGAIN! Well, been super busy at work and now's the time for exams and so on and so forth...
Here's a new project that I came up with some time ago. I used alot of Tattered Angels products for this. Using the Glam, take a brush and paint it all around a sheet of transparency. (the ones that you can get at any stationery shop) It will dry quite fast. I was surprised that it actually could dry and not peel off too. So with that pretty sheet of painted transparency sitting around, I thought for a long time before I hit upon the idea of making a candle or flower holder. Then I selected some flowers, from Prima and Daiso (hee hee!!) and used the Glimmer Glaze and painted the white ones. See the shimmer in the last picture? I love love love that effect!!
I also sprayed Glimmer Mist over the doillie to make it less stark white. End result! Hope you like it!
Do come on down to Laines Papeterie if you wish to know more of how to make this very pretty candle/flower stand!

Lazy lazy me!!

I keep telling myself that I need to maintain my blog cos I've got really nice customers who keep telling me that they visit my blog but find that I've not updated for a long time and then they dont come back anymore!! Sob Sob! I really really try hard. Even my facebook account remains quite dormant until I remember that I've got an account that I need to maintain!

I'm actually quite ashamed of myself really. There are so many of my friends out there too who are working mothers and yet they find time to update their blog, keep people informed on their facebook and still find time to scrap and spend time with their kids!! I really need to watch less TV! Seems that when I should be blogging or scrapping or doing some sorta more useful stuff (like save the world!!) I'm facing the box. It is always easier to press that little "on" button, kick back on my comfy sofa, have a nice little drink in my hands and watch my favourite cooking programs! (Yeap, me looooooove cooking shows!) Especially when I know that if I start scrapping, my little toddler with the itchy, greedy little fingers would be all over my work and stuff.

Excuses, excuses! But hey, I've got some scrapping done though.

Here's one with my all time favourite.... Tattered Angels glimmers and glazes! I've used them all here! The background has shimmery white and transparent misted and splattered all over it. The white dollie has red misted all over it and I went a little nutz and misted the gold transparent shimmer over the whole layout! (I covered up the photo of course!)

Dreams

Hee hee! I actually "stole" the flower clustered with pin idea from Jaz's class! It's so nice, how to resist??!! Sorry Jaz!!

Here's a close up of the crazy glimmer, glaze spraying and splattering stage that I went through! I'm now all splattered and misted out. Till the next splatter session then!

It's August already!!

I thought that I had been quite regular in updating my blog. Apparently not, as I discovered when I saw that last date that I posted. Hee hee! How can time fly by sooooo fast??!!

I think I know though. When you are enjoying yourself, you have stuff to do, places to go and people to meet, time does have a way of speeding through!

I have been teaching at Laines for the past 8months already. I still find it hard to believe that so much time has flown by. It sometimes feels as if I've only just joined them. But for the simple fact that I know/have almost everything at my fingertips just proves to myself how far I have come from the super blur and confused person when I 1st joined!

There are times when I wish I could stay at home and be with my kids. I miss them terribly and I want to spend all my time with them instead of letting the maid be my stand in. However, I know that if I had to stay home full time, I'd probably go stark raving MAD! So, I have my hands very full balancing my kids, work and scrapping. When I say scrapping, I mean my own stuff and nothing to do with work. Oh, I love work and teaching and designing and stuff. But nothing beats digging out my own stash and having a blast of a time with close friends and fellow scrappers!

Oh well! I need to go now! Need to dig out that little bit of time in between my little girl's nap and my boy's tuition time to have a bit of scrapping done!

Leaving you with a Webster's challenge page!

More craze! Wow!

For an Instant, Love can change the World

I recently dug out my wedding photos to do my August class project and I went on a "wedding" binge! Hee hee! I thought that I should try to make as many layouts as I could cos they're probably the only photos I have that I actually look good in. I'm not terribly photogenic and nowadays, I dont really have alot of nice shots of me and hubby.

In Dreams & in Love

I got my lovely title ideas from a Fiskars stamp set on love. The quotes were beautiful and since I've got crappy title skills, I decided to hijack other more skillful poets! This trio of gorgeous beads are from a large pack of beads that I bought from Spotlight upteen years ago and never used. Papers are from Basic Grey and are about 2 years old. Still lovely and very relavant to the occasion.

My Hollywood Walk of Fame
This is Bri pretending to be a Hollywood star as she puts her hand onto the floor of the cruise ship. Bran has almost the exact pose when we went to the Hong Kong Walk of Fame and had his hands on the real walk. Will develop both photos again and do another layout.

Here's 2 transparency butterflies that I hijacked from Jaz's Envelope class in June. Hehehehe!

Sudden scrapbook craze!!

Went a little scrap crazy recently!! I had this really strong urge to complete all my older projects as well as do up new ones!! Hahahahaha! I'm using really old MME, 7 Gypsies papers. Thought they still look so good. I also made some flowers from strips of paper twirled round and round using my all time favourite adhesive, Beacons! Yeah!!

Double the Joy

Here's one for my cousin's twin girls. They are so so so adorable and lovable! They are now in Primary One already and this was taken like umpteen years ago!

Dare To Dream

This was a shot taken in Japan. It was in summer and the heat was so bad, we were wondering if anytime someone was going to get heatstroke! Brandon's cheek was so red! It was a picture perfect moment!

Hug Me Tight

We were in the car and Brother and Sister suddenly became very loving and kept hugging each other! It was really amusing to watch them. I just wish they were like this more often!

I'm Applying for the ROLE ......

This is Brianna being cheeky and adorable! She loves to pose and make funny faces so I made this layout seem as if she was applying for an acting job at TCS! Hahaha!

And these are the flowers made from paper strips. I was scrapping at my MIL's place (yes yes, I bring my scrap stuff EVERYWHERE!!) and I didnt bring along any flowers. So I thought that it really has been a long time since I actually MADE anything! There are so many many ready made stuff out there nowadays! These flowers are really easy to make and look so shabby. Hmmmmm.... I might just use this for the next class!

Sneaks of my June class at Laines!

Here're some sneaks of my upcoming layout in June at Laines Paperterie. There's quite a number of fun Tim Holtz teachniques to be learnt here. Me thinks it might have been a little too many!! Hee hee! Hope can finish on time!!
Shiny shiny shiny!! Wanna know how to create this effect? It's a part Tim Holtz and part "Shirley does not know where else to get materials" effort! Hahahaha!
This is a really interesting texture using Tim Holtz resist idea. Lucky I managed to snag a really good stamp to use for this!

I love the 7Gypsies transparent layer. It's just gorgeous! The colours, text and look go so well with the overall look. Doesn't everyone love music notes? Especially when it's on a sheer ribbon!

Okie, hope the sneaks look tempting enough for you! Do come down to Laines to register for your classes before they run out!!
There will be a whole lot of classes (10, I think!!) this month at Laines and Papermarket @ PS. Coz Papermarket @ RC is undergoing a change in address and renovation! Yep, we're moving to a better, brighter and even BIGGER location at the basement of Raffles City!

Me & Yanni at the new store at Plaza Singapura

Those lovely flowers that look good enough to eat are created by Yanni, our super talented lady at the new Papermarket. I could not help taking a pic with her and those flowers! Yeeeeeee! Love 'em!

Creative Escape Photos! Yeah!

Giving out fantastic prizes! Elaine's really generous with those prizes. They had all sorts of delicious for the lucky participants! Doodlebug aprons, tote bags, Donna's bags, canvas album, scrap packs and so many many that I lost count!

Donna showing one of her many awesome techniques. Learnt so much from her.

Eager participants taking photos and getting autographs from the ever willing and patient Donna. (Me too pestered Donna for an autograph. Hee hee!)

My wonderful groups of "students" who were sooooo patient with me when I was not sure what to do. Thank ya all ladies! This group, Shireen, Sibyl, Tan Yen were fantastically independent workers who only asked me for stuff when absolutely necessary!

Another group of wonderful "students" who ended up "teaching" me more than me "teaching" them! Thanks Angeline and Karen! Florence and Amanda wowed me with their creative works of heART!
Here's sweet Amanda with her beautiful camera bag!

All of us just collasped and sat on the floor for lunch! Too tired to go anywhere or even sit on chairs and tables.

Boss and Iver and Zn having a rare free moment! They were so swamped with customers who wanted to buy anything and everything! Even our own staff wanted a piece of the action! Hahahaha! (Talking about myself la, who else??!!)

Creative Escape with Donna Downey was absolutely AWESOME!! Donna is such a lively and engaging person. Her classes were peppered with so much laughter and fun! I can't believe I got to meet her in person. Donna, YOU ROCK!

Thankx ya all!

Just a simple word of thankx for all your support! Hey, you ladies moved me to tears! Heehee!!

Now on to funnier stuff. (Need to laugh after the rain!)

I signed up for Merdrey's Flutterink class at Papermarket last night coz a customer at Laines kept asking me to join her for the class. I thought it'd be really fun to go and got my aunt to come babysit. (What a terribly irresponsible mum!)

It was truly a BLAST!! So fun and so funny!!! Can you believe I was the slowest and blurest student in class??!! I was constantly asking Cecilia what was next and what was it that Teacher Merdrey was saying! Keep forgetting la! But in the end, I learnt so much about alcohol ink and how to use it in a fun and fairly dirty way! Wahahahaha!

Here's Teacher Merdrey and me after the class. Lucky she still wanted to take photos with me after the class and not just knock me over the head with the hammer!