12/12/12

Hi all,

Last Wednesday was a once in a lifetime date. 12th December 2012 - 12/12/12.  Did you do anything special for this unique date?

A bunch of us got together on the 12th to do a 12/12/12 Christmas canvas. Each of us had twelve main elements to place on canvas. There were reindeer, ornaments and trees. I chose tin soldiers for mine. Angela Collingwood also chose soldiers and she backed them with guard houses. I decided to keep it simple and did glittery blue shaped tags on mine.

 The canvas is very long at 100cm x 20cm. Perfect for that sliver of wall. Some of us did our canvases horizontally, while others did theirs vertically.

 The canvases were mod-podged with Christmas papers and allowed to dry. After that, layers of acrylic paints in favoured colours. I kept mine pretty light so the bottom paper would still show through. I then added silver acrylic paint around the edges and dabbed on some pearl mica flakes. I also stenciled on silver glitter glue through a circle template.

 The soldiers were die cut and pieced together after distressing with black soot. I die cut, embossed and painted the backing before covering them in blue glitter. I love how the embossing shows up in certain light under the glitter. The soldiers were then stuck on with hot glue and I added mini wreaths and die cut numbers to finish off.

Products Used

100cm x 20cm blank canvas

Papers from Making Memories (not sure which line)

Mod-Podge

Silver and green acrylic paints from Kaisercraft

Pearl mica flakes medium from Golden

Silver and blue fine glitter

Tin Soldier die, mini label die, mini wreath die, Wordplay die by Sizzix

Embossing folders by Sizzix

Chequered Dots Template from Dylusions Stencils for Ranger Inks

Cardstock from Bazzill and Core-dinations

Black Soot Distress ink from Tim Holtz forRanger

Hope you'll try something similar. It was a lot of fun. This will be used to count down the twelve days of Christmas and can be taken out every year to be used again and again.  In fact, why not do one of these for every occasion?

Thanks for dropping by,

Not So Traditional Christmas

Hi there,

If you know me, you know I love my scrapbooking. Duh...  But you'll also know that holiday layouts are my nemesis. Christmas, birthday, Easter and Halloween layouts are my downfall.  I never seem to be happy with the outcome with them. Maybe it's because they are always in the same colour palettes; red/green for Christmas, pastels for Easter, orange/purple/green for Halloween. Or, it could just be because, they are the layouts that "have" to be scrapped, whether you want to or not. Whichever it is, I still have a couple of years of Christmas's that I have to put down on paper.

You can imagine my joy when I could do a Christmas layout in other colours. This one is predominant pink!! Yes! A pink Christmas layout. What more could you want.

 Merry & Bright

 See? Pink! Matches my Miss C's dress perfectly. She looks like a little princess here.

 The title was one long chipboard banner which I cut in two. I also used my eClips to cut the big "&" to place behind. I think it looks almost tree-like.

Note to Self: next time - put your layout somewhere safe, where the Jake cat can't treat it as a mat!

Products Used

Papers, chipboards and stickers from Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas 2011 collection

Bling flourish from Zva Creative

Icicle Stickles from Ranger Inks

Thanks for looking!

Another Week of Baking and Caking

Hi All,

Hope you all had a good week. Monday was taken up with a crop session. We usually do one at my place on Fridays, however, since I had two cakes to do, we changed it to Monday. Just a few of us - eating, chatting, having a laugh, and sometimes, even getting one or two layouts done. I'm usually having too much fun to actually finish a layout, but I always do finish it later.

This week has been filled with baking and caking, so I'm going to bombard you with a few pictures of the cakes I made. I did a batch of M&M cookies for a Red Cross charity bake. These cookies are so yummy - crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. They bake up so well and are very easy to make.

 If you'd like to try out this recipe, I got it from here. I substituted the chocolate chips for the M&Ms and left out the nuts. Do try the original recipe too.

I then spent Wednesday evening baking for two cake orders, and Thursday and Friday building and decorating the cakes. These ones were very fun to make. I don't do a lot of tiered cakes, and I love them.

Daisy with Balloons

This was based on a cake by The Cake That Ate Paris.  The client loved the design and wanted it replicated, but with a Daisy Duck.  I think it worked out pretty well.  The inside is vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream.

 Here's the top view.

Ballerina Cake

 

 The birthday girl loves ballerinas, so what's better than a pretty cake with flowers, hearts and a little ballerina sitting on top. This cake was chocolate with chocolate buttercream.

 

This is my first ballerina - I still need a lot of practice for my figurines.

Next week's cake fell through, so hopefully, I'll be able to do more scrapbooking instead.

Happy weekend!

HK Memory Chest Kit Club - December 2012

Hi there,

It's the end of another month and time for the reveal of our HKMC December kit. As much as November's kit concentrated on neutrals and smaller patterns, the December kit is the complete opposite, brimming with bright primary colours and vintage images.  Oh, and all the yummy goodness of chevron, gingham and honeycomb patterns. Perfect for those girly pages and yet have enough bold patterns for those boy pages.

December Kit
2 sheets Glitz Design Cashmere Dame "Chevron"
2 sheets Glitz Design Cashmere Dame "Floral"
2 sheets Glitz Design Cashmere Dame "Cherries"
2 sheets Glitz Design Cashmere Dame "Banner"
1 sheet Jenni Bowlin Coredinations - Core Amour - Row of Cherries
4 pcs Glitz Design Cashmere Dame Giant Rhinestones
1 pack Glitz Design Cashmere Dame Crepe Trim
1 pack Glitz Design Cashmere Dame Teeny Alphas - Black
1 pc Glitz Design foam stamp
1 pc co-ordinating Washi tape

Add-On Options
Glitz Design Cashmere Dame "Gingham"
Glitz Design Cashmere Dame "Honeycomb"
Glitz Design Cashmere Dame Washi Tape
Glitz Design Cashmere Dame Teeny Alphas - Tiffany Blue 

December Sizzix Die
Tim Holtz Alterations Movers and Shakers Die - Mini Silhouettes

Best of Friends

 My two little babies bonding. I love the combination of primary colours intermingled with romantic florals and bold patterns. The cute blue crepe paper adds a bright visual to anchor the layout.

I covered some card stock with washi tape before punching out the butterfly. The flowers were my inspiration for this project.

The red scalloped frame was cut out with the Spellbinders scallop dies. I then covered it with Glossy Accent to give it that shine.

This title was designed and cut with the eClips.

Extra Elements: Dymo tape, black cardstock

Super Duper Cherry Pie

 

 I've had this photo of Miss C goofing around for ages and it always makes me smile. I thought these were such fun papers to go with a fun photo. I coloured the chevron paper pink to add more colour. I love the Jenni Bowlin coredinations paper; you can distress it as much as you like and it adds a subtle texture to the background.

 

Check out the cherry paper. So cute. I also love the teeny alphas; they're like baby sized scrabble tiles.

 I turned the crepe paper into a rosette and the giant rhinestone says it all.

Extra Elements: Pink Glitter Foam Thickers

Walk For Good

 

Another lot of photos that have been waiting to be scrapped for ages (try four years)! I backed the papers with grey cardstock and it really makes all the colours pop on the page.

The tiny blue alphas go great with the black puffy letters I added for the title.

I'm loving sequins at the moment. Just a sprinkling of them adds amazing dimension to your page.

Extra Elements: Black puffy Thickers, sequins

Here are the layouts from the rest of our wonderful DT.

That's How She Rolls by Angela McDaniel

 

4th Birthday by Angela McDaniel

 

A Day To Remember by Erika Lui

 

My Flower Fairy by Erika Lui

 

Handsome by Angela Collingwood

 Christmas Ornaments by Angela Collingwood

We also hold free crop sessions for kit club members; to check out the samples and get some guidance if you so choose. The December crop sessions are as follows:

Discovery Bay Crop
6th December (Thursday)
10am - 12pm
Hosted by Angela McDaniel

Sheung Wan Crop
11th December (Tuesday)
10:30am - 12:30pm
Hosted by Grace Wong

11th December (Tuesday)
7:30pm - 9:30pm
Hosted by Erika Lui

If you would like to join the crop or if you want to sign up as a new kit club member, give Erika a buzz on 2559 0175 or email her at info@hkmemorychestonline.com.

Hope to see you there.