PROJECT LIFE WEEK 13

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update for Project Life today. It was a busy, but routine week here that I had, so the whole week is on just one page for this week.

And that is fine with me. It's better than stressing over trying to fill in the pockets got the sake of doing it (:

I recently went into a sequin craze, scattering it like confetti, a trend that has been hot in certain circles recent. I call it my shiny confetti.

Also, I snipped one of my camera cards into half to use it as a 'tag' of sorts. Also I'm continuing to use yellow thread to add stitching. Also noteworthy- airmail coloured washi. If you are looking for it Scraplicious, my LSS in Singapore, just brought in a whole new assortment of masking tapes, including this one, so head down there if you are interested.

It was also Earth Hour on Week 13 and I was witness to it in the busiest section of town and it was cool to see how all the lights dimmed for the hour.

Do you spot the camera flair with the wooden background? It's coming soonish to my etsy.

Project Life is a line of products by Becky Higgins, and can be used for documentation of daily life or anything else you may want. I am using it to remember the year and take more photos of  my everyday. For those who live in Asia, you can get your PL supplies from Scraplicious. Follow my PL journey here. You can check out more project life week pages all around the web, check out The Mom Creative. 


On the topic of my etsy store, I have a new listing.

A fun mixture of doilies, paper bags, shipping tags, twine, sequins and exclusive vintage flowers flair.

Here's a close up look:

Go to the store or click here to see more details about the set called "Sweet Treats".

Hope you are having a good week! Mine has been swamped, but I hope to check back in soon.

CHRISTMAS ISN'T CHRISTMAS TILL IT HAPPENS IN YOUR HEART

Christmas week has come and gone, though its remnants are still around (:

I have been busy finishing my "cup-dom" of christmas gifts. Let me explain cup-dom which comprised of a kingdom that spanned more than 100 cups.

So this year I discovered the joy of vinyl and decided to spread it all around, giving vinyl decorated cups. I special ordered chalkboard vinyl and used my silhouette to cut vinyl like a mad woman. Chalk is somewhat a rare commodity nowadays, being somewhat of a novel thing especially for children. This is as schools here now use whiteboards and eraseable markers unlike the yesteryears.

And this was the result (front and back):

The chalk was placed inside the chalk, giving it a tinkling sound as it clanged against the cups.

Giving a hundred of these meant:
- coming back from ikea with 3 big boxes stacked with the cups
- countless repetitive actions of remove the three stickers that were on the cup (though I do not understand why there is a need for THREE stickers), clean with nail polish remover, peel vinyl, center it, and smooth it out with a scraper.

While I have been doing that, I have been keeping up with my DD.



Here it is, looking nice and fat, the rings are about to burst, but I think it makes it look well-loved

Just some pages to share, will be back to share more of it in due time.

Hope that you are having a lovely christmas with all your loved ones.

DECEMBER 7 & 8

What happened to December 1 to 6?

Well I was actually away from home at the start of December, which I'll share more about later, so I decided to dive right in and record the days memories and do catch up later. That seems to be what a couple of people are doing and for me, it just makes better sense. After all even if I don't get back to the front pages, some being recorded is always better than none, right?

DAY SEVEN

Supplies: Crate Paper, American Crafts, The Twinery, Cosmo Cricket, October Afternoon, Maya Road, My Mind's Eye, Studio Calico

As DD is not to just document Christmas, as it isn't a big thing at home, I document interesting things I see of everyday life too. As my table is usually in a mess of bits and pieces here and there, I just grab what I have and use it, in addition to already put aside for DD supplies. Thus my supply list is long at time.

This is a Merlion (a national symbol in Singapore) there was made purely out of lego pieces that was in the toy store that I was in. What is gushing out of his mouth is supposed to be water created from lego.

Interesting fact, a Singaporean is one of eight lego certified lego masters in the world today and is commissioned to make many large objects out of lego.

Christmas trees are in every mall everywhere. In Singapore, malls are everywhere, so I'm sure you can imagine how many trees I have seen so far.

DAY EIGHT

Supplies: Crate Paper, Keng, Jenni Bowlin, Silhouette, American Crafts,  October Afternoon, Doodlebug, Maya Road

Love the grey October Afternoon opaque mist to add a little dimension to the mix. Isn't the "EIGHT" paper tape too cute?

Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street? Shows like that are galore in numbers in Singapore. Growing up, Elmo and Cookie Monster were my favourite characters ever.

So back to being away at the start of the month

This was where I was for work. And I made a minibook "Amy Tan" style to add things about this trip inside. Previously I had used a photo album with pockets to documnet trips overseas, as for the long haul ones, it would include items that I would want to have pictures of both side or want to be able to feel. But for these short ones, a book to stick everything down and have it look cute is good.

Here's the pre-book, as taken on the plane towards Bangkok. PS: I only did the cover when I was on the plane as I had stayed up the night before to create the book and did not have enough time.

Will share the completed book tomorrow, all done within just a day.

It helped that I used my new Fuji x10 as the SOOC shots are generally of very good quality and colour, so minimal, if any, editing is needed. I would recommend it to anyone who is thinking about it immediately.

PROJECT LIFE IS IN MY HANDS

I already had the design A page protectors in my hands and had planned to stop there, using a WRMK faux leather 3-ring binder, even though my heart was swaying here and there about whether or not to purchase the core kit.

The pros was that the design was something that I liked and that it would be "easier" to keep updated with th cards and such. The cons is that I might get tired of using the same design repeatedly and that I really should use my stash instead.

However, as they made their way to Singapore, it swayed the balance a little and I caved and bought Clementine

I went down yesterday and now have the pretty white box in my hands (: You must understand the commitment to go and collect as it is the other end of the island from which my house is located - even though I have to qualify that Singapore really isn't that big.

And now for the unboxing to see all the goodness that is stored within the box

One thing that I didn't like though was the styrofoam inserts. I have an intense dislike for the "screeching" sound that styrofoam makes when rubbed the wrong way. Personally I would have preferred that it were sturdy paper inserts. It is highly likely that I would be "dismantling" the package as it is a nightmare for me to constantly hear the screeching sound. Which is a little sad as I would have liked to kept it this way. A couple of cards were also dented as I believe they were inserted without enough care, but I understand that when you manufacture offshore, usually quality control is compromised. But this is really minor and I just won't use those cards, or will find a way to cover it up if used.

  As it was because of the design that I bought it, I would be remiss to not include pictures of the cards that are within. My favourites are the graph/clock design, the grey/white combos and and typeface cards. Personally I think it looked better in person than on the screen.

An upclose look for those who might want a better look at it. I apologise for the slight 'glow' on the cards due to the unusual morning sun over my house.

I'm still contemplating at this point whether to use my Red WRMK album or the Butter album that will coordinate better with the entire project.

I'm also a couple of days late in posting it here, but I have had it prepped and ready to go a few weeks ago.

Just had time to capture my cover

Supplies: Crate Paper, Maya Road, The Twinery, American crafts, Studio Calico

I have adopted the attitude of document it over everything, but yet it is important to me in order to keep the engine started to get the cover right. I knew that I wanted to use woodgrain for the cover and decided to do wood on wood, by attaching a Maya Road wooden doily.

Sprinkled on some white Mr Huey's which to me looks gorgeous on the woodgrain paper.A felt detail from American Crafts Dear Lizzie line, twine and a light coat of Shine Mr Huey completed my cover and really made it easier for me to feel excited for my DD.

Now to continue the work on the inner pages that show December and Christmas in it.

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS

This is a familiar tune from the university hall days where I used to be part of the acapella group hahaha.... and the main event was doing caroling tunes to raise money/ or rather earn money for the year.

One of the memories that I have is us huddling in the music room all in hushed tones to record some carols as samplers to send out for jobs, which we did get some. We would all hold our breath while waiting for the leader to say OK, before we would all heave a sigh of relief and start chatting while hearing the playback. Of course this was done in the most unprofessional way plausible, in a non-acoustic room with a wholly unprofessional recorder.

To this day, I still have my scores and can remember my parts (:

As many have been blogging all over the blogosphere, the red Starbucks cups have made their appearance, for me meaning that toffee nut is in the house. I decided to do a layout on this year's cups and flavours, as the cups change every year and thee flavours differ from year to year.

Supplies: Crate Paper, American crafts, Doodlebug

I cut apart the tall and grande cups which my Starbucks person happily gave me. I secretly think that they are used to it and probably have printed cups in excess in anticipation of crazy scrapbookers asking for their paper cups. If only they would christmasify up the cold beverages one. I'm thinking white snowflakes splashed across the cup. Well, if any Starbucks person reads this, here's my suggestion hands waving.

 Do you have a different set of flavours at your Starbucks?

UNIVERSITY MEMORIES

University days were certainly filled with much activity. One of them was crusade activities.

Here's a layout to commemorate those days

Supplies: Hambly, Studio Calico

I cut the background mask with my silhouette and misted it with Dewey and Lemonade Mister Hueys. I especially adore the rub-on camera. Splatters were made with Plum Thumb mist.

A PREMADE ALBUM

As any good crafty lover should have, I myself have had several Maya Road chip board albums.  So I decided to make good use of my stash and create a family album to gift to someone.

A look at the side of the album

The insides, including a trifold pull out to put in multiple photos

Making use of the Crate Paper Restoration collection. It's vintage family style is just perfect for such an album

Throwing in some prima flowers 

Hope that the family receiving it likes it. Cos I really do (:

WANDERLUST

Traveling has always been in my blood. I love going to explore a new country, even though admittedly it can be tiring, but the life experience you get from especially traveling solo is not what anything else can give you.

Of course people have asked, why don't you travel with people or wait for friends to go together, but being alone is good, for the mind and soul and the  embracing of what life is.

And of course the footwear which accompanies me to every country I can wear it, barring winter. 

Love the twine that swirls around behind the letters at the bottom of the page to give the layout some movement. And the diecut paper makes it look like a stamp, which I like

Hidden journaling in tag behind photo.

Supplies: October Afternoon, Studio Calico 

JAPAN YUMS

A quick one in just to share, using 4x6 photos.

Going to Japan is always a treat, especially for all the delicious food that is available all over the island.

Supplies: Crate Paper

Photos taken from a trip to Japan last year.

MARK MARK MARK

Teaching is easy, at least for me. What I have problems with is the marking. Especially compositions.

So eating while marking, at least for me, helps speed up the process.

This really does happen, I'll go somewhere with a stack of scripts and mark away. Especially when it is compositions, because there is something there to motivate me (: And of course, document it, cause it is unique to me.

Supplies: Studio Calico March 'Into the woods' kit

I thought the big alpha paper was appropriate, since I was marking english scripts. Glued down the die cut pieces from Cosmo Cricket and ran my Sew Easy through it. The chipboard stars were embossed with blue powder Zing, for the nice bright colour.

As much as scrapbooking is about pretty things, I try to choose embellishments when possible relate to the theme of the layout, such as stars, that usually appear on homework done well.

And because the picture might not make sense to me after a few years (thanks to a goldfish memory), journaling is a must.

What interesting things do you do at work?

BAKING FUN

Baked for the first time in a long while and wanted to remember my oven creations. I'm especially proud of the banana peanut butter brownie. Everything sweet goes well with peanut butter and banana in my book.

Supplies: Echo Park. Jenni Bowlin, Me & My Big Idea

If you look closer, the scallops behind the photos are stitched. Just a fun layout.

What is one thing you haven't done for a really long while?

A FRAME FOR YOU

With a big paper stash, I try to use it well by making gifts for people, especially birthday ones. Photoframes for me are my go-to, as we all need to display more photos.

Here's one that I made recently, using twine to 'link' everything together.

Supplies: October Afternoon, Hero Arts, Tim Holtz, Crate Paper, Jenni Bowlin

This was thrown together with scraps on my table and I think it turned out quite well. Doilies are still "hot" in the scrappy world and in my world too.

A short scrappy share (:



ENGAGEMENT PHOTOSHOOT (NOT MINE)

So I decided to make better use of my big clunky DSLR that I own. I must add a disclaimer that it has served me for nearly five years and its cost has definitely been used to its max. I just haven't had a chance to use it lately.

My friends were going to get married and we decided to give engagement photos a whirl, after we finally managed to get a date together.

We spent most of the time in the Civic district of Singapore and went around some of the colonial buildings to capture photos.

While doing the post editing (really the part that I don't enjoy, but have to do regardless), I got bored and decided to get my scrap on. So I quickly printed out three of my favourite pix from the shoot and threw together the below layout.

Made mostly from Crate Paper's Restoration line, which accentuated the black and white photos. B&W photos are some of my favourite as I love the classic feel and focus on the people in the photos I get when I look at them.

Additional supplies: Prima, Jenni Bowlin, American crafts, Fiskars punches.

I like the faux photo negative strip that I created with the Fiskars border punch. I also used the Apron Lace punch, which is a nice outlined scallops on the border. Two embellishment clusters completed the layout for me.