Shaved @ 28 days old

This layout goes into Asher's first year album. It's about Asher being shaved at 28 days old. I dunno if its a Chinese tradition or superstition to have the babies shaved only at certain days in their first year.

Both Adah and Asher were born with very little hair but Adah, being a girl, we just could not bear to have her bald. With Asher, we had no second thoughts about shaving him and so we did when he was 28 days old, considered having fulfilled the first month of his life. (满月)

The layout above is inspired by Pink Sketch #30. And I am submitting this for Moments Recorded 2nd Challenge for the month of April. Papers used were from Love Elsie and My Little Shoebox. I also made the little flower from my leftover scraps! Learnt that from a tutorial on YSS. This is a really simple layout and I just gathered everything together last night and pieced them this afternoon. Nice and sweet and I love the papers from My Little Shoebox. They are so versatile and I find them very suitable for Asher's first year album. A change from Sassafras Lass papers, not too cutesy and not too girly.

Sassfras Lass- Beautiful Baby

This paper is from Sassfras Lass- Fawnd of You collection. I like deers since young and now I see deers everywhere in scrapbooking products. So how can I resist this this paper?



This is what became of it after I cut out almost every useable flower and cloud and lines from it.



Each and every part of the paper is too pretty not to be used. Sometimes I buy papers and other embellishments and I just admire them in their original packaging. Everything looks so good that I just can't bear to use them. Sassfras Lass papers are like that. I look at them and feel so sorry to 'mutilate' them, so I try to minimise damage and use as much as possible. Lols.









The photo is one of my favourite shots of Adah when she was around 1.5 months old, sleeping peacefully. Adah was so challenging as a baby that when people asked me when her terrible twos started, I tell them I dunno. I only felt that things just got better and better as she started to talk and could communicate her needs with me; and all that happened when she was around 2. So honestly, I did not feel that she was that terrible at 2. She was worse before that- cranky, colicky, refusing to sleep and sticky. It always took us (mostly me cos Papa will give up in frustration) to put her down for her naps, and she always slept late in the nights. Strangely, she must have been so exhausted in the day that she started sleeping through the night at 5 weeks old.

'Ohana means Family'

I did this one and only layout last week. Actually I started on the previous Saturday and most of it was completed by Sunday night. Then the hubby decided that he will finally materialise his promise to bring the kids and I to Tokyo and so I was busy booking air tickets, hotel (we are staying in the Disney Ambassador Hotel!), looking up information on Tokyo and Disneyland/ Sea, detailing information and I was soooo excited that I got my little notebook ready with all the agenda and necessary info! The hubby calls it my 'Tokyo Bible' and I intend to transfer it onto our 'Firt Family Holiday' mini album after the trip!

See how excited I am yakking away about Disneyland when I am supposed to intro this challenge over at Dream Girls. The challenges for this round:

Prompt: Use a quote from a movie for your page title (You can choose any movie, we just used Jerry McGuire as examople).

Technique: A penny for your thoughts (Show us some visible journaling).

Product: Use chipboard or grungeboard on your layout.

And I had wanted to 'scrap' this latest picture of our family together taken in March. Its so difficult to get a good family photo with the two kids looking at the camera, Mummy looking glamourous and Papa looking suave. This photo still does not fulfil all the conditions above but its good enough for me! Ha ha ha! We have been watching a lot of 'Lilo and Stitch' lately. It was Adah's favourite movie when she was younger and she would repeatedly watch it for weeks. And I like what Lilo said in the movie to remind her sister that their parents taught them 'Ohana means family'. Adah has also been repeating this lately so it just stuck and I decided to use it.

Just to share a bit on the details. I am so proud of that little house I made out of punched circles and stamped woodgrain images. The door is actually a small accordian sticker that opens up to reveal pics of the kids. I had forgotten to take pictures of it. The little sheer birds perched on the roof are from Maya Road and I like the patterned paper from American Crafts and that leaf ribbon that was used to form the stems of the flowers! So only 1 layout from last week... ...

Journalling reads: 'Ohana means Family and Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten'. And that's why we all came together to Shanghai when Papa got posted here in his job, so that we will not be seperated as a family.

Btw I received my order from Simon Says Stamp! Yay!!! More stamps that I have been waiting forever for and now Hero Arts has launched even more new stamps that I am coverting after again, but I shall exercise some control in view of the upcoming trip!

Whiff of Joy Summer Kit

Whiff of Joy is launching thier summer kit. Click here to bring you to the page that bears details on their kit subscription. Its on pre-order basis and includes 6 brand new, never before seen, main character stamps, 5 accessory stamps, designed by Elisabeth Bell and 4 text stamps, designed by Katharina Frei herself (the owner of Whiff of Joy Stamps).

Katharina is being very generous and is giving away 2 sets of Summer Kits as blog candy to celebrate the launch!!! Have I ever mentioned how much I like the stamps designed by Elisabeth Bell? Her images are always so sweet and lifelike, easy to colour in and so versatile for all occasions. Check out the Whiff of Joy blog too... ...

Papier House Yellow Challenge/ Lotus Paperie Challenge #118

This is my latest layout to add to Adah's first year album. I did a layout based on the below sketch challenge over at Lotus Paperie. I find that they always have simple and easy sketches to follow. The recent sketches are meant for multi- photo layouts and I like it cos' I have so many pictures to scrap. And I just have to incorporate yellow into the layout cos I am so happy that warmer days are here again! (Also in line with Papier House Challenge!) We are entering spring and I dun have to layer the kids up and its so much easier to carry a less bundled Asher. I think he weighs another 2 kg under all those layers!

I used the chipboard plant to represent 'Growth'. It is amazing to see Adah's baby pictures now. 4.5 years seem to have fly by so fast. Even in her first month, she is growing bit by bit, hence my title 'Growin Bits'. On the plant are 3 tags tied onto it that bears the weight of Adah in her 1st week, 2nd week and 4th week. I have to go dig up records of her height to put in as well. I can only remember her birth length! Uh oh...

I had originally cut out white strips of paper for my journaling but 5 lines seem too short for my journalling, so I decided to do away with it and write on the yellow paper directly. I think it shows off more of my yellow paper though white strips of paper would look equally nice too!

Cupcake Craft Challenge #34- Folds

Wow...the challenge for this week at Cupcake Craft Challenge is not easy.The challenge is on folds. Anything that has more than 2 folds count, and so I decided to try making this tri-fold card with a 'see- through' window. I came across a similar card design by another Singapore scrapper and thought this tri-fold card will be so cute with hearts 'peering' through the window.

It was not easy to cut through the paper to make sure the windows on all 3 sides of the card match. I had used two sheets of paper to make the card instead of using a single cardstock. With hearts, I could not decide if I want a wedding theme or a generic theme, so I ended up using my favourite 'Daisy' stamp from Sugar Nellie again. Everytime I see this girl, it reminds me of myself thinking of home. So sad, rite? ;-)

Since I do not have a die cut machine, I decided to stick my heart shaped felt stickers to fill up the window. I hope the photos above from different views help to say how the card was made. It's really very simple actually... ...

The Sugar Bowl Challenge #8

At first glance of the sketch provided for the challenge over at The Sugar Bowl this week, I thought it was kinda complicated and was slightly overwhelmed. That would mean lots of paper and colours co-ordination and I think I suck at it. But still I love a challenge and finally came up with this card last night.

I used this 'Sweet n Sassy' girl stamp from their Sweet Art Ebony: Honey n Pip collection, pulled together all my scraps, and tried to coordinate with what I have. I inked the edges of the paper with my VersaMagic chalk ink and I love the effects of it! So soft and subtle and sweet and matches my stamped image perfectly! Somehow I suddenly seem to have everything to match the image and that was how I completed my card in a night. Otherwise, I think I would have taken days to complete this card. Also the sentiment and the butterfly image are from Unity Stamp. I had chalked the butterfly instead of coloring in and attached it using dimensionals. Yay! I feel like I am on a roll this week!

Whiff of Joy Challenge #25 / Simon Says Stamp Challenge #1

I made this card for Whiff of Joy Challenge #25. Pardon the glare from the pictures but the sun seems to be shining into our living room from all directions these days. I really like the sketch provided by Katharina and she's launching more new stamps again! That is probably bad news for my wallet. LOLs!

Anyhows, I used the sitting girl and tree stump above from WOJ's Spring kit collection designed by Elisabeth Bell. I had tried sewing on the squares and its my first time using the sewing machine that I had bought off Taobao.com (China's version of Ebay) and so I think the stitches are none too impressive but this is a big step from having the sewing machine jammed half the time and hair/thread pulling at the same time! After all, I almost failed my sewing segment in Home Economics class last time... ...

I used green, brown and yellow papers for a very 'Easter/Spring' feel (it's finally Spring in Shanghai!) and to meet the requirements of the challenge over at Simon Says Stamp challenge blog as well. I did not put in any sentiments cos I wanted some generic cards as spares. I finished this in 2 hours. I'm beginning to feel better as I use up my stash these days. Less guilt, more fun and more mojo!

Challenge submission for The Story Matters

This is my submission for the current challenge going on at The Story Matters. Finally I got scrapping again. Were there ever days you wondered where did all your time go to and what have you been doing? I have so many of these project ideas up my head and activities I wanna do with the kids but in the end, I sometimes get nothing done or take soooo long to get something going. I set a new year resolution earlier in the year that I want to complete the first year albums for the kiddos and catch up to their current ages so that I can scrap more current photos and reduce my backlog but the photos are growing by the hundreds monthly and the progress is so slow!!! Sighs...


Back to the challenge over at The Story Matters. It's to scrap about what you want to be when you grow up. I always wanted to be a mother and a lawyer when I was younger. Of course, over the years, heartaches and experiences changed my mindset and I decided,'Ok, no kids and no relationships.' Then I met my best friend and now 2 kids later, I take back my word. But this layout is not about me, its about little Adah. She is absolutely fixated with brides and princesses and that's all she wants to be when she grows up next time. Did I mention she was so annoyed looking at our wedding pictures because mummy 'did not bring her to the wedding to see Mummy as a pincess'? LOL. So thats what she wants to be when she grows up next time in her little 4.5 year old mind...

On the layout, I used lots of stuff from Imaginisce Fairy Tale Collection line. The light pink papers, rub-ons, stamped carriage and the chipboard stickers. I had stamped the castle from Unity's Little Princess kit and layered it in 3 layers with dimensionals. I like that castle!!! I did not intend for the 'bling bling' look on this layout but guess I went a little overboard with the crystals here! Ha ha. The close up pics speak for themselves, the rub- ons are simply gorgeous but I randomly adhered the rub-ons, crystals and pearls to make them look more like flourishes.

Definitely satisfying... ...yum...

Cupcake Craft Challenge #33 / Elzy Bell Challenge #17

This submission is for Cupcake Craft Challenge #33. Its a pretty easy sketch to follow and I did the card while watching Desperate Housewives Season 5 on online streaming (Thanks to Yunyun who introduced me to it while she was here... ...)

I had the image of that cute stamp from Elzy Bell the minute I saw the sketch. Its from her clear stamps farmyard range tittled Little Birdie. I love Elzy Bell stamps. The images are so simple yet cute and easy for me to color in using all sorts of medium- water color crayons, brushes, pencils, copics etc. And little Adah also wants to help me color in the images cos they are so cute to her and I always end up stamping extra for her to color in.

So, I basically just stamped the image 3 times, cut out the cow(2x) and the sheep(1x)and attached them using dimensions. I coloured all 3 images with my water color crayons (didn't wanna cheat on the bottom image cos it'll look prettier that way ;-) ) and stamped the little flower image (from the same set) all over. I went easy on the embellishing since I wanted focus on the 'popped- up' image.

I am submitting this for ElzyBells Challenge #17 also. Its a recipe challenge and we only require the following:
1 piece of ribbon (check), a circle (check) and an embellishment (my cute flower buttons!) Yay!!!

Fairy

This is the only layout that I had done last month. With visitors and Asher falling sick, then me, then Asher again and watching 'Little Nongya' every night, this was all I could complete. Sighs...

The pictures of Adah was taken on her 4- year old birthday. She had wanted so much to be dressed in the Barbie Mariposa outfit that the studio offers but we had to pay so much just to be photographed in it, I decided it's not worth the price. So I went through the rest of their wardrobe and pulled together this outfit for her and had her posing in almost the same pose as that Barbie Mariposa poster. I wonder what's with girls and Barbie but I went through a short phase of that when I was young too. Not really that into Barbie but desired a doll more because we couldn't even afford to get one.

Back to the layout, I like the cheery orange Paislee Pink Paper. It gives off a warm feel despite the cold weather here still and that's one of my favourite latest Basic Grey paper...hmmm...I love the papers I brought back from Singapore and am still salivating over the new weekly arrivals that I see at our LSS webpage. Added some chipboard from my stash and that little angel charm I picked up from the market here.

Simple but I like what I am seeing... ...