New CHA stuff to play with!!

Heeeeyy!! When the gals came back from CHA, they didn't forget us folks who didn't have the chance to go. Mer Mer brought back for us some really "solid" goodies from CHA and I'm now finally allowed to post cos the stuff have arrived at Laines! Yipeeee!!

Here's the fantastic Studio Calico, Documentary. I love love love the papers with the cameras and the scooters and the map and the aeroplanes and the.... well, I love 'em all!!

I also did up a layout with it but it isn't quite ready yet so I'm only showing part of it. Hee hee!

AND there's my all time favourite brand, My Mind's Eye. I've got so many of their papers that I can devote a whole rack just to them. Now that I've got my grubby little hands on their newest range, I can't help but squeak in delight! I have already done up quite a few stuff with their generous packs and I can't wait to show it off!

My favourite too!! *Squeak squeak*!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Tattered Angels glimmers, glazes, mists!! And what's more, I actually found out that I could use the built in brush in the Glaze and splatter it onto paper and make beautiful splotches and splats. WooooHooo!!

Here's the splotchy splotchy splats. Oooooo! Me lovey lovey them! So nice so nice! Try it out, don't be afraid to splatter it all over your art work.

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!

Laines Sneak Peaks for July Classes!

This month at Laines, we have 6 classes. But 2 classes will only be conducted once. They are the very special projects done by Merdrey! One gorgeous project is a Hambly album made from scratch and contains so much stuff that it's a miracle that it has not burst with all the goodies!! The other project is a 2 page layout which is very pink and cute! If you love having interactive stuff on your page, you should really do this class!
There are 2 albums this month from Sharon, Stamping and Bowlin. Beautifully done (as usual) and so touchy feely!! I'm very tempted to take them home myself! Arghhhh!!
And last but not least, our all time favourite layering queen, Jaz! She has outdone herself this month by having a 2 page layout class and a 1 page layout class. All the beautiful layering and special vintage stuff that is used.... Hmmmmm! Yummylicious!

Have you seen such pretty flowers??!!

Recently, an old friend asked if I have any crochet flowers. I do have quite a few actually. I dug out some and realized that they were way too pretty to be kept hidden! They were crochetted by my mum some time back when I began the craze for scrapbooking. I wanted flowers that no one else had and "stole" some of my mums crochet flowers to put onto my layouts!
So here's a collection of crochet stuff that my mum did for me! Enjoy!

What inspires you?

I often ask my scrapping pals what inspires them. But whenever I'm scrapping, I don't consciously think of what inspires me. Do I really need inspiration? Or do I need a bolt of lightning? Hahahaha!

I am often stuck when doing layouts or altered art. It gets worse when I need to design for class and I have a deadline hanging over my head. Then I walk away from my project and flip through magazines, turn on the computer, browse other talented scrappers, check out the latest products. I am very inspired by what I see online and in magazines. THEN I GO TO SLEEP AND EVERYTHING IS LOST!!!! Arghhhhh!!!

Then how? Like that? Die la!!

So, day after day, I plod on, wondering what inspires me... More importantly, what inspires those talents out there?

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!

Wintage box at a steal!

I know that this is not an original nor is it a true antique. It's just that as I was walking through the streets of Chinatown after dim sum, this gorgeous box caught my eye. It wasn't expensive at all and I could even bargain with the owner! So, I quickly slashed the price as much as 30% and the guy gave it to me!

Isn't is just gorgeous?! But ermmm.... I just noticed that the inside of the box seems quite gruesome... I can't really read all the words but the pic... Hmmmm... Never mind la, I likey!

Sneak Peeks at Laine's!!

This month I designed 2 interactive layouts that Sharon fittingly called "Push and Pull"! Hee hee! Coz I made it such that one of the layouts has a hidden mechanism that seems able to move rather mysteriously! All you have to do is pull on one of the tags and the other end moves too! Fun huh?! I enjoyed making it so much that I made a few of them for my mum and aunt so they could put my kids pictures in them and show off to their friends! These tags can be made on their own and put on cards, mini albums, or simply used on its own.
The other layout is a pinky and romantic one. It also has a hidden part where more photos can go into. Again there is a push and pull technique but this one is simpler. But no less fun as you can put in hidden pics of boyfriends, kissing scenes (hee hee!) etc!
So come on down to Laine's and book a space before they're all gone!!

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!

I love the new Papermarket store at PS!!

I just love the new store!! Arghhhhh!!! Even though it's similar to the one at RC, I just love love love this mini version of it. Maybe its coz of the new concept of "fast food" scrapbooking. Or maybe its coz of the cozy layout of the store. Or maybe its coz of the beautiful chalking done by Merdrey. Or maybe its coz of the bar top counter. Or maybe its coz of the paper butcher that can cut all sorts of fantastic stuff. Or maybe its coz it has all those cutesey pens that I love. Arghhhhh!!!! How I love the new store!

Can you believe Boss came up with the fantastic idea of open concept scrapbooking? I love that idea! I love the fact that we can just scrap something on the spot even though we don't have photos on hand. Just so long as you have your handphone (who doesnt????!!!!) you can print your photos on the spot and just scrap!! It just takes an hour or more to come up with a fast and gorgeous project for that special someone. And every month, there are different projects that you can do. How cool is that??!!

One of these days, I'm so gonnna just go down and bother those lovely and lucky gals who are "parked" at that counter and do up a project of my own! Just for the fun of it!

Long overdue Layouts!

My Scrapbook Journey

When I first got my job appointment at Laines, I was truly overwhelmed. I knew that it was not going to be easy and I had been out of the job market for 2 years. It was going to take lots of hard and heart work. So before I started work, I decided to scrap this completely photo free page and journalled my scrapbook journey.
I hope that at the end of the day, whenever I feel out of sorts and unhappy, this page would serve to remind me of my passion and the reason why I love scrapbooking so much!
I simply love this flower that I put together. Thought it looked really dimensional and cute and I got to use the pin that I was saving for a special layout! Hee hee!

Our Family Travelogue

This 7 Gypsies album has been in my cabinet for at least 3 years! It was time I did something about it. So I thought I was going to just use a couple of photos for each trip and then write a detailed description of the trip. BUUUUUT..... so far, I have only gotten to the stage whereby the cover has been decorated and nothing else! Hee hee hee! I WILL TRY very hard to make this album work coz I've really got alot of travel photos to complete.

Got this beautiful beaded flower from a "bunga" shop in Malaysia. They sell stuff meant for malay weddings and they always stock gorgeous and cheap beads, flowers and even sparkly butterflies!

This little birdy was from another flower shop but in Singapore. Just walk into any of those shops selling plastic flowers and you'll see quirky and fun stuff like the birdy. Flower is from Daiso and I inked with Vintage Photo.

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!