November fun

November is always a special time of busyness for me.

I celebrate the birthdays of my 3 girls and there are a lot of excitement and anticipation after watching their friends celebrate their birthdays before them.

This year, I decided to indulge them with their favourite wants. Frozen stuff for #2, #3 and football jersey for my eldest...

Now for the layout... :-)

I used paper from Heidi Swap and applied clear gesso. (I seem to like clear gesso more than white). I embossed randomly with a leaf stamp. I also sprinkled some mists.

I used a vintage metal heart shape from Daiso and some chipboard flourishes. a fairly simple layout.

thank you cards

My kids are finishing their final year in their current school and we are having a birthday - cum - farewell party in school. other than packing the goodie bags for 3 classes (the school has only 4 classes), I also decided to include some 'thank you' card for their friends. 

My intention was to get them to write some sentiments, but ended up with a 'Thank you for coming to my party' kinda note. oh well. 

I will probably write a 'thank you' note to the teachers myself.

e

anyhow, I used a stamp set from EKsuccess It's a party! for this. it comes with stamps of various sizes and also a punch for punch out the center. 

I used a seperate stamp for the word 'thanks'. I stamped and embossed with white powder for most. tried some with black. overall, it was quite fun and good way to practice stamping. it was definitely not perfect but it was good practice. 

mixed media venture

after I attended my first mixed media (MM) layout class with MWL, I decided to try it out. I had to prepare an anniversary present for a friend who is celebrating her 10th anniversary milestone as well as 1year bday of her 3rd kid. I've decided to do 2 layouts. but here's the first one.

i need to mount this on a 12x12 (like a mat) but otherwise it is completed.

I used Prima Bloom spray to make the 'cross', layered it with paper& paper strips, embellished it with some wood veneers & flairs.

I used gelatos to create the starburst effect.

for the 'frame' on the paper, I ramdomly stamped with brown ink, and I also used UT (Ultra thick powder) for the 2nd layer. since UT is transparent, I mixed with copper fine embossing powder to have colour.

it didn't turn out so bad. I'm pretty pleased with it, but it is a far cry from those 'expert' work.

MM is actually quite fun and there are a lot of possibilities, much more than with simply paper, in my opinion. Right now, I can't decide if die-cutting is a bigger investment or MM, or which has a better ROI. I suppose it is just a different style and really depends on which is your style.

baby album - EJ

it's been a while since I made a baby album. I don't think I've actually uploaded their pictures.

Since I've made a few to-date, I have a rough idea how to start, but I must admit that I didn't have much time to do this and my brains were stuck.

Thankfully for a pack of baby-boy journaling cards I bought. I used more than what I expected.

for the Cover: I applied clear gesso on it, sprayed it with 2 colours and left it to dry. I then used EK heart punch to punch hearts shapes and just layer them.
I "gesso-ed" the chipboard E, J and put VersaCraft red on it.I used small lettering to put the name on the chipboard. decorated with some heart-ribbon and a bit of blings.

As this album is for a boy, I couldn't use much flowers or the like, so I ended up using wood veneers & stamps.

I used paper from a stack, so that it all coordinates. my first album was using random pages and what a headache it caused me.

pages 2&3 were dedicated to baby's family.

pages 4&5 was for 3 months milestone.
I also added an insert to break the monotony and to give some space for journaling, if so desired.
the flap was for "random facts about me"

pages 6&7 was random pictures
on page 7, I mildly decorated the page so that a full 4x6 picture could be inserted. the rest of picture slots were either 3x4 or 3x3.

pages 8&9 was for 6 months milestone.
there is also an open flap on the right for more photos.

pages 10&11 was 9 months milestone

pages 12 was dedicated to 1 year milestone though it was not explicit.I used a stamp for 'walking feet'.

There were very few captions as I was really out of ideas, although 'bath-time', 'grandparents' were among some of the pages in previous albums. Partly it was due to a lack of appropriate embellishments, which made me aware of the need to top up!

to be honest, i do have, but it was mostly for girls and the recent deliveries are going to be boys!

paper punches to create different edges and also using ribbons between pages to create textures in place of blings.

Overall, I thought it was pretty nice for a boy :)

stamps

I bought this set  of stamps from someone else' stash and it must be one of the best addition to my collection.

As my kids love to play and I have lots of photos, it really enabled the journaling  process. 

really happy with my purchase :-)

good times - leg0 exhibition

this photo was taken almost 2 years back when we went for the Leg0 exhibition. The kids were standing over the air duct in the shop and immediately their imagination took to flight.

I remember this day because we had lots of fun. 

I haven't layered paper in a long while and wanted to do it. However, it wasn't as complicated as I would like it to be.

I used Project life cards for sentiments.

Cut out green velium to overlay, followed with an embossed heart & a brad and cut washi tape into an arrow to bring focus to the sentiment "good times".

I made 3 layouts instead of using Project Life, since Hubs commented that my layout consisted mainly of single photos. 

for the first 2 layout, I used printed paper for photo mats. it adds colour to a otherwise plain black or blue background. I used orange distress ink to bring out the photo mats from its blue background. quite happy with the effects.

with the first layout, I used paper punches to bring even more dimensions & textures.

This layout was done a long time ago, when I first started out. hopefully my skills has gotten better with practice. :-)

Kids wanna have fun

I finally used the Mambi Kit given to me by my friend a long time ago. "Kids wanna have fun".

I used a background from DCWV Modern Meadow Stack, with some japanese origami papers for the layering behind the photos.

I altered a chipboard sun/flower. I embossed the outside with yellow. for the middle, I used red Versacraft and then embossed it with gold glitter.

All the accents & sentiments comes from the Mambi kit, except for the 'grass' at the bottom. Those are die-cuts I bought from the store.

I used good, old cotton wool for clouds & a bird brad. I folded the corner down and used sky-blue versacraft ink to colour both the white background and the white card-stock I've sticked behind it.

As for the little banner behind the word "kids", I used the banner chipboard that came with the kit. I traced it onto paper, cut it, and inked it with purple versacraft ink (again).

One thing I discovered:

1. I like DCWV paper pads

2. I like versacraft pigment inks, compared to distress inks. I believe it has to do with the range of colours available. Somehow with distress inks, not only are they expensive but there is a limited range of colours.

3. Paper layering is a great way to give depth to a project.

4. Chipboards! super fun. will start buying/hoarding them :)