HK Memory Chest Kit Club - December 2014

Apologies for being a little late with the December kit post - been moving house (flat), this week and boy, was that tough. We spent last week packing up everything - and I can tell you there were 19 large boxes for my scrapbooking stuff alone!

When hubby first moved to Hong Kong, he only had 21 boxes for all his belongings. How far we've come in fifteen years - now we just have so much, it's hard to keep track of all our items. Time to downsize, maybe? Ha! We won't be starting with my scrapbook stuff, that's for sure. It took us five full days, working until 8pm every night to get the flat in order and everything out of boxes. Quite a feat, but the flat is now a home. If I have time, I'll have to do a photo tour of my scrapbook area.

Before all the upheaval and packing, I was able to finish a layout and a mini calendar with the December kit. This kit was very interesting as it is themed with cats and dogs, but that doesn't mean you must be a pet owner to use it. I think it's cute to use them as accents to compliment your layouts and if you look at my calendar, it doesn't really shout out "pets" to me. Again, this kit is packed with gorgeous embellishments to adorn your pages.

December Kit 2014
Graphic 45 Raining Cats & Dogs – Cats Meow
Graphic 45 Raining Cats & Dogs – Check It Out
Graphic 45 Raining Cats & Dogs – Precious Pets
Graphic 45 Raining Cats & Dogs – Well Bred
Graphic 45 Raining Cats & Dogs – Animal House
Graphic 45 Raining Cats & Dogs Chipboard Die-Cuts Sheet – Journaling
Graphic 45 Raining Cats & Dogs Cardstock Die-Cuts – Banners
Maya Road Vintage Alterable Lace Trim – Mini Mums
Maya Road Vintage Metal Charms – Umbrella
Maya Road Vintage Linen Burlap Trim – Lime
Maya Road Transparencies Die-Cuts – Time Flies Clock/White
Jillibean Soup Beanboard Thin Chip Alphas
Jillibean Soup Wood Sprinkles Self-Adhesive Embellishments
Petaloo Penny Lane Mixed Blossoms – Black
Doodlebug Doilies

Optional Add-ons
Kaisercraft Wood Flourishes – Umbrellas
Prima Lifetime Shaped Metal Paper Clips – Clocks
Prima Gem Embellishments – Clear
Graphic 45 Raining Cats & Dogs Cardstock Stickers
Sizzix Framelits Dies with Clear Stamps – Beautiful You

Here's the sketch for this month:

Meowy

 It's so hard to capture good photos of animals and after several attemps, I finally got one where Miss Molly looks bright eyed and bushy tailed. I love the subtle newspaper print on the background page and wanted to show more of it, so kept a lot of white space. The row of cat postage stamps are too cute.

Miss Molly's my little meowy cat, as I call her. The green letters stand out from the browns and blacks of the page.

 A few fussy cut flowers soften the layout and provides a 'frame' around the photo.

The brass umbrella and clock are too cute and there are loads of them in this kit so you can use them everywhere.

2015 Calendar

The calendar is around 4"x6" in size. I created a small monthly calendar through excel and matted each one with black cardstock. I gathered similar embellishments to tie the pages together (lace flowers, chipboard, clock transparencies, flowers and umbrellas). The letter pack was more than enough to make up the months in the calendar, although I did need to turn a W into an M for May. For the life of me, I couldn't get March to upload to this post, mainly because I'm hotspotting off my phone, not having any internet for the last six days and my service provider dragging their feet.

Here are the other layouts and projects from our team:

Mini Album Box Set by Belly Lau

 Care by Belly Lau

 Folding Mini Album by Erika Lui

White Dragon by Erika Lui

All You Need Is  Love And A Dog by Erika Lui

This kit is so versatile; mini albums, calendars, layouts and project life layouts. Such fun to work with.

Chai Wan Crop

9th December (Tuesday)

10:30am - 12:30pm

Hosted by Grace Wong

 

11th December (Thursday)

10:30am - 12:30pm

Hosted by Belly Lau

Looking forward to seeing you at the crops on the above dates.

Happy scrapping,

Swing

Oh gosh, this month has me chewing my fingernails to the quick. We made the very quick decision to sell the flat we live in and had to find another place. Anyone who's moved knows the stress that comes with it. Lots of packing, sorting, arranging, hair pulling. We've been in our current flat for five years; not a hugely long amount of time, but we've accumulated our fair share of "junk". Packing boxes will come on Sunday and then it's pack, pack, pack! Oh my, my scrapbook stuff!! Just the thought of moving all of that has me breaking out in hives.

And all before that, I still have a few layouts I need to get out for HKMC's December kit. In the last week, I did manage to get one layout done during our crop session. This one features the main kit from MCS and I also used the sketch they sent with my kit. It's the same sketch that they are using for the November sketch challenge - of which I haven't submitted any work for the last few months. Time to get back into it again.

This is the sketch from My Creative Sketches

Here's my layout for the sketch

Swing

I love this kit so much as it had a TON of embellishments - die cuts, vellum cut outs, flower cut outs - all to match the papers. It made it so easy to put pages together.

 I love how the die cuts had a mix of normal, gold foil and glitter ephemera for you to pick and chose from.

 Look at the vellum pieces. I so love the hand written vellum pieces.

I added a wooden butterfly from my stash to this cluster.

Products Used

Papers, embellishments and ephemera from Crate Paper Open Book collection

Wooden butterfly from Studio Calico

Chipboard alphas from American Crafts

Photo mat pink cardstock from Bazzill

There is still so much of the kit left and I hope I have time after the move (and before Christmas) to do another layout with them. 

Thanks for dropping by and wish me luck on the move.

HK Memory Chest Kit Club - November 2014

Time is passing so quickly. It's already the beginning of November and only a few weeks left before Christmas and the end of the year. Still not cool enough for the duvet and cat on the sofa but cool enough for hikes up the hills behind our flat. It's amazing when you get up to the top, taking in the breeze and being able to look over our little domain. A perfect autumn day with rare blue skies.

Starting in November, HK Memory Chest is going through a metamorphosis, with a new location, an updated website, a new blog (www.papercraftbuffet.com) and online shop.  It is on the other end of the MTR island line and a little out of the way, but we'll still be there for classes and to offer assistance during our monthly crops. The new address is Room 1905, Trend Centre, 29-31 Cheung Lee Street, Chai Wan, Hong Kong.

On to the kit. This one is packed with stuff and I'm extra excited about it as it combines gorgeous modern elements for the city-fied girl in me. Designed by Kelly Purkey, the kit colours are perfect for autumn, with greens, oranges and purples (and can also be adapted for those Halloween layouts if you so wish).

November Kit 2014
Basic Grey “Second City” by Kelly Purkey 12×12 – Ashland
Basic Grey “Second City” by Kelly Purkey 12×12 – Lakeview
Basic Grey “Second City” by Kelly Purkey 12×12 – Hyde Park
Basic Grey “Second City” by Kelly Purkey 12×12 – Logan Square
Basic Grey “Second City” by Kelly Purkey Chipboard Shapes
Basic Grey “Second City” by Kelly Purkey Wood Veneer Stickers
Basic Grey “Second City” by Kelly Purkey Die-cuts Transparencies
Basic Grey “Second City” by Kelly Purkey Flair Stickers
Hero Arts “Second City” Stencil by Basic Grey
Maya Road Wood Veneer – Clouds
Maya Road Metal Clips – Sunny Day
Studio Calico Alphabet Sticker Book

Optional Add-ons
Sizzix Original Bigz Die – Big City by Marisa Pawelko
Lindy’s Stamp Gang Spray – Witch’s Potion Purple Starburst
Lindy’s Stamp Gang Spray – Silent Night Silver Starburst
Basic Grey Second City Cling Stamp by Hero Arts – City Map
Basic Grey Second City Clear Stamp by Hero Arts – Totally
Basic Grey Second City Cardstock Stickers

Here's the sketch based on one of my layouts.

My Hong Kong

I'm in love with the yellow city grid paper and don't even get me started on the city scape paper. Just too cool; perfect for the pics I took a while back. For the top details, I cut a border sticker in half lengthways for the purple scallops and folded down a corner to add the sun clip.

I clustered some frames and feathers to the left of the photos to balance off the page and added just a bit of stamping to draw your eye. I love the feathers and leaves that come in the kit.

The kit comes with a pack of big pack of alphas and I added them on to give a subtle title.

Bright lights, big city - yup, it may be a New York saying, but does very well for Hong Kong, if not better.

Elefun

This collection can be so versatile and I wanted to show that in a grungy layout. The colours and patterns give off an exotic vibe and I felt went well with the colourful elephants in the photos. Messy stamping and paper tearing for the background compliments the detailed photos.

 I'm loving the colourful street map paper which really pulls your eye into the photos. I edged a lot of the layers with black soot distress ink to give it a more definition.

I sprayed a doily with matching colours to lay behind the photos. The kit has a great selection of chipboard, die cuts and wooden embellishments to choose from and I enjoyed putting my accents together.

The title is an amalgamation on the word "elephant" and "fun". For the stencil on the top edge of this picture, I inked the arrows horizontally to go with the paper pattern orientation.

This Way 2 The Good Stuff

For my last layout, I love the ombre orange background paper as a contrast to the predominantly blue photos. The photos were taken in England last year where Miss C had hilarious fun trying to run around in a water zorb.

I pieced together different accents from the kit to make the title.

I added gold glitter to the heart in the cloud before adding glossy accents to keep the glitter in place. I found a little arrow stamp in my stash and stamped them in gold around the page.

To add interest around the photos, I cut up the street map paper into "patchwork" pieces to frame the lot. I added more word stamping and cut up some of the transparent pieces from the kit.

Here are some of the work from the rest of the team.

Here There Everywhere by Belly Lau

 Let's Go by Belly Lau

Hello There by Belly Lau

Fisheye Fun by Belly Lau

 Macau Mini Album by Belly Lau

Hanging Ornament by Belly Lau

School Camp by Angela Collingwood

Amazing Singapore by Erika Lui

Hello There by Erika Lui

Chai Wan Crop

11th November (Tuesday)

10:30am - 12:30pm

Hosted by Grace Wong

13th November (Thursday)

10:30am - 12:30pm

Hosted by Belly Lau

The shop may have changed locations and may be further away for some, but we hope and look forward to seeing you there for the crops. 

Happy scrapping