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 

NEW YORK NEW YORK

I had the opportunity to visit the city that never sleeps in June for a full week. It was packed full of fun and activity, really earning its name. I was actually even shopping at Forever 21 at Times Square after midnight on a week day.

I made a scrapbook on the road, or rather a photo album which I slotted in all my memorabilia. After coming back I printed out my photos and added relevant journaling.

Supplies: Sassafras, Studio Calico, Fancy Pants,American Crafts, Crate Paper, October Afternoon

The epitome of New York City is Times Square where at all times of the day there is always people and the place is always packed. And the Avenue of Stars was my inspiration for the layout.  I lay out the veneer stars and misted the entire background to make the stars stand out. The filmstrip stamped out also pays tribute to the theatre industry, Broadway. The title draws inspiration from the song "New York New York". I also ran my Sew Easy along the bottom strip of the layout with the zig zag head attached to the body.

A POST-JAPAN LAYOUT

June, July and the early part of August have been laced with travels and work, so I haven't been around much, returning not too long ago from Japan. So apologies for not having blogged.

Well, my job involves travel, and one unique opportunity I had was to go to the areas struck by the tsunami in March to document the post-tsnuami recovery, especially in the coastal towns in the Tohoku region.

To prepare, I spent two and a half weeks binge reading about the tsunami and the recovery efforts that were taking place, while emailing every single person possible to build my contact base and get help in the land. All this without a translator and not being able to speak a sentence of Japanese.

Luckily for me, there were angels sent down that helped me in getting around as well as translating and navigating me around the area.

In my layout are the two places that I had visited and the photos that I took that impacted me the most, a salute to my photojournalism teacher (I hope). Kept the layout simple as it really is about the pictures as I journaled about my feelings, particularly as I never thought that I would be doing this out of school. 

This was put together quickly with the scraps I had on my table, as I just wanted to document how I was feeling at that point of time. The camera tin pin from October Afternoon and the typewriter tag from American Crafts for me, illustrate what I was doing there.

Other supplies: Studio Calico, Jenni Bowlin, American Crafts, Hambly Studios

Have you made a layout about your job or what it means to you? I think you should, no matter what your feelings towards it at the moment, as like it or not, it plays a great part in terms of the time it takes up in our life at least (: 



STITCHING A TITLE

Life has been hectic and I haven't had time to post much.

Below is a layout I made sometime ago but haven't had the chance to share on my blog.

Supplies: Cosmo Cricket

How apt that the line used is named "Togetherness". I first traced out the word 'togetherness' and then used a paper piercer and made the holes to guide my needle and thread. I then stitched the outline of the heart and added faux stitching with a pen on the smaller heart.

Just a quick share and I have to run now.

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.

A 21ST BIRTHDAY LAYOUT

A multi-photo layout. I actually do like doing these, but often want to write too much on my page to be able to include to many photos. Also I appreciate 'white space'.

This was the 21st birthday celebration of my cousin's birthday and was done pronto, as I delivered this to her the night of the celebration, which took place in the early afternoon.

Printed the photos 3 x 4 sized and lay them out before layering the papers and embellishments to add some visual interest and accenting. But the photos remain the key focus of the layout. This is what I love die cuts the most for as they add touches of loveliness to the layout.

Here's a close up look.

Supplies: Crate Paper, American crafts, Pink Paislee



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?