Got Food? for Scrap Inspire Create October Challenge/ Pink Sketches #43

Here is the layout for my first DT assignment with Scrap Inspire Create October Challenge. The challenge: to use felts, fabrics and ribbons on your layout or altered project. I was so excited that I completed the layout within 2 days of receiving the assignment from Jasmin! Lols.

I had also used Sketch #43 from Pink Sketches for the layout. I had submitted this layout to apply to be part of their DT team also because I simply loved how everything turned out in the end! I had used the striped paper from Scenic Route as the background and mounted on the red paper with foam squares for a layered look. I distressed and rolled up the edges of the paper where I cut out and I think my layout ended up looking like a table mat, though the concept only came to me to model the LO like one in the midst of doing it. It's strange how and when mojo can strike you. Its like you never wanted to walk the path but you decided to anyway, and you found something that you had been looking for along the way...

The pictures in the layout actuall show Adah having her first meal. I was such an inexperienced mum then and I didn't know what to prepare for her to wean her off milk and start on solids, so I made carrot puree. I hadn't realised that you need a blender to make it into puree so I thought if I cook it really long enough and mash it with a spoon, it will turn all squishy like baby food. It didn't turn out that way, and sometimes I wonder if Adah's difficult eating habits when she was younger had to do with my inexperience and ambitious experimenting which turned out otherwise!

I had used a piece of fabric to matt the top photo cos I thought the background stripes looked pretty and I could still show more of it through the 'peek-a-boo' fabric, If you look closely, I had used cloth stickers for the chef's hat and menu. For felt, I cut up my Prima Felt Matties which was meant to be used as a matt and added to them some felt stickers from Chatterbox as $embellishments. My ribbon is not that obvious but its that 'apple' strip at the right had side of the layout.

Adah ate lots of apple sauce/ puree when she was younger. She loved it and wanted it with her main meals almost all the time...I always like to use embellishments which remind me of the kids on my LO when its about them. My favourite part on the LO has got to be the vintage looking characters that I cut out from a postcard that I found amongst my stash! Lols...they were hidden away for so long that I almost forgot about them!

Please do visit SIC's blog and submit your challenges for a chance to win a RAK from Timi. It's her birthday month, so 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY Gal!' And if you want more inspo, check out what the rest of the DT members have came up with, I'm sure you will be impressed!

More Toots!!!

I am typing this at 6 am in the morning at Osaka. We have been here 3 days now, and I am too happy for words that I can access Blogger, Facebook and other blocked sites freely without having to go through anoymous proxies which sometimes block out half the contents anyway! Anyone noticed I changed my blogskin? Whoo hoo!!! So happy that even my blogskin looks so 'scrappy' now! The hubster says I am so addicted that I get withdrawal syndromes if I do not cut or paste or play paper for even a day...LOLs

It had been a terrible rainy day yesterday and we took a train out to Kyoto to check out the mountains and geishas but we ended up seeing nothing. How do you pacify two kids who have been dying to see monkeys, check out maps, manipulate an umbrella and a map in one hand and push a stroller in the other? SO we just gave up and made our way back to Osaka early...

Anyway, I just wanna share here that I have made it to the Design Team of Pink Sketches! My heart was just thumping away when I saw the e-mail header from Kellie and as I read the lines on the Monday afternoon just before we were supposed to fly here, it really made my day. And nothing could ruin it even with two bawling kids who were fighting to sit next to me on the plane!

I definitely was smiling through the day! I always loved sketches and I dunno how Kellie does it but the sketches that she comes out with weekly is fantastic! For me, I like to use sketches a lot as I am too lazy to think up of new layouts all the time. I just wanna 'head butt' into my stash and bring out all the embellishments once I am ready to scrap, and I like a ready sketch so I can just focus on embellishing and layering!I am a lazy scrapper I guess!

So Coy

Another layout using Basic Grey's papers...you can tell I love my Basic Grey and Websters! Lol!!! Not all of Basic Grey though, some of their papers are too exotic looking for me and I can't see myself putting a layout with them. These are what I call difficult papers...so yummy and good looking but too difficult for me to tackle cos I dunno what to do with them. And this is my latest rule that I keep in mind when making purchases to save $$$, dun buy papers that I can't foresee a layout with.



Adah at 6 months old. I dunno how I managed to capture this look of hers with my idiot proof, point and shoot digital camera. I am still at that stage of photography, I dun really dare to venture into another hobby that may require an expensive initial upfront payment though I think I may enjoy it and it will definitely contribute to my layouts' asthestics!

Anyhow, I am still happy with my regular digital camera which has managed to take some of these close-ups. I actually think that they are getting also a little sophisticated these days with their functions too. You just have to figure out how to use them appropriately...

Good news and a sneakie

Good news to share...I am on the Design Team for Scrap Inspire Create!!! I am so honored to be joining Jasmine and the rest of the DT over at SIC, and my term will start from October and end in March next year. At this point, I can't help but wonder how time seems to just zoom by these days, or am I getting old and nostalgic already??? I was just showing Asher the photos of his daddy and me taken during our uni days and he couldn't recognise us! Daddy had long hair as it was the trend then and Mummy was so big-sized and tanned from all the sports and outdoor activities then...

Back to the topic of being on SIC's DT team...I was so excited that I completed my layout for October's challenge within days of receiving it, so I am going to show a sneakie here. One of my favourite LOs...



Here's another layout that I have done recently...simple but at least it's a different color combination from my usual. Tittled 'The First Gift', its a reminder to Adah who's pictured playing with her first present from her Por Por that her first gift from her is actually her love. I was blessed to have my mum together with me while delivering Adah. During the labour, I suddenly missed her a lot and just burst out crying when I heard her voice on the phone. The labour was so long that she actually managed to make it to the hospital to witness Adah's birth. She was so excited that she immediately went shopping at the basement shopping arcade and brought back this teether which has a loud, noisy music function!

Butterfly Crafts Challenge #20

Time just flies by before we know it. Its the end of my short term with Butterfly Crafts as their DT member. It has been fun participating in the cyber crop that Karen has put together and getting to know everyone else on the DT. I remember how excited I was when I first received news that I am on the DT and how I couldn't wait for the first challenge to come along and now, its all over before we know it! And we are entering the last quarter of the year...when I was a banker doing sales, our performance was always assessed based on quarterly targets and I remember how I would always name and remember the year by quarters. Sigh...it's been a long time, but it always seemed so near yet so far past.

Back to the challenge- scrap about a summer family tradition. We came from Singapore where it's always sunny all year round and we never got a chance to experience the four seasons until we came to Shanghai. I hate winter because it always seem to just get colder and more dreary. The sun sets by 5 pm and its all dark, and of course, the kids fall sick more easily.For me and my little family, I think we miss our fun in the pool most whenever we are not in sunny Singapore! So once the weather gets warmer, or when we are back in Singapore, we will definitely visit the pool! Adah is absolutely a water babe and Asher is beginning to enjoy water play too. This summer, Adah started formal swimming classes and is absolutely delighted to find that she can swim on her own!( Journaling is on the top left of the page)

The Layout


Some close-ups

Tootsss!

Just wanna share that 3 out of my 4 layouts done using Basic Grey products have been chosen to be displayed in their online Gallery at http://www.basicgrey.com !

Woah Whee!!! I had shared all the layouts in the post just below. When I went to surf their gallery just now, I was so impressed by the talent there. I am so honored to be a part of it!

First Day back to School

Its the first day of school finally after the summer holidays! Adah has been home with me for the past 9 weeks and I think she's really enjoying it. She has been in a lousy, emo mood in the past 2 days and even lost her appetite. She did not even want her favourite roasted pigeon! Was a rush- rush- rush day for me today, ferrying Adah to school, groceries and then picking Asher and Adah up again. I was sort of looking forward to having some free time after Adah starts school again but I started missing her the minute I left her school. So weird not to hear her incessant chatter and 'Mummy' requests after having her as my shadow for the past 9 weeks....Adah cried a little in school today. It always happen when I drop her off at school...sighs...but just now in the evening, she started to complain that her throat hurts and she was feeling cold. So, I guess this must be the start of a new viral infection again. Now, I am just praying hard that Asher doesn't catch anything from her. It always take him ages to get better :-(

Some layouts to share done over the last 2 weeks, all of Asher's in his 4th month. He was so chubby then. Hope I am able to complete both kids' first year album by the end of this year. Its my scrappin' goal for this year. I have so much to scrap and so much to journal for them, and time just flies by...Its already september now! Imagine that! Where did all my time go to?

Lil Explorer for Lotus Paperie Challenge #138


Love Dat Smile


Smile using Sketch #31 from 52sketches52weeks.com