CNY In IFC

I've been busy this week working on next month's HKMC kit, to be revealed in early May and I can tell you, it is so much fun. One hint: watercolour.  I can't wait to show it to you but alas, we will have to be a patient a bit longer.

At today's crop, I decided to change tactics and instead of thinking up an original layout, I wanted to follow a sketch. It also gave me the opportunity to finally submit another layout for the MCS sketch challenge and this is my entry for April.

And here is my layout:

CNY in IFC

I love the colourful triangle paper and although it's quite busy, I wanted something cheerful and bright for the colourful photos. I tried to leave the rest of the details pattern free to balance off the busy background, although I do love how the pink cut out flower really pops off the page.

I added an accent corner on the top of the photo, just a small cluster of flowers and tags.

I love the wood look camera - it also adds a bit of 'neutral' to all the colours.

Products Used

Papers, die cuts, washi tape and sentiment stickers by Amy Tangerine Rise and Shine collection

Flowers by Marion Smith

Tag and canvas heart by Crate Paper Craft Market

Canvas Thickers by American Crafts

Grey cardstock by Bazzill Papers

Thanks for dropping by,

Love With All Your Heart

I always look forward to my Thursdays, when the ladies come over for lunch and scrapbooking. All of us managed to finish/semi-finish one page and it's always a delight to see what everyone is working on, be it the umpteenth birthday layout or some new experimentation. I love seeing it all come to life. This week, I was excited to play with inks, flowers and some new stamps.

 Love With All Your Heart

 A combination of Marion Smith papers with Prima flowers and embellishments is a match made in heaven. The photos were taken just before leaving the villa in Bali by one of our friends. She styled Miss C's hair and did the golden 'tattoos' for her. I just love this photos.

 For the background harlequin paper, I first added light molding paste through a linked circle stencil. I then stamped randomly around the page in aqua and brown pigment inks with the new Prima splatter stamps - seriously, the best stamps ever.

You can see a glimpse of a chipboard lattic in the back which I painted with acrylic Silks and embossing powders. I love the printed wooden embellishments, especially the mirror and of course, flowers. Lots of lovely flowers.

I even brought out one of my embossing folders for some added texture to the blue damask paper. Is the little wooden comb not the cutest thing?

Products Used

Patterned papers from Marion Smith (several collections)

Flowers, wooden embellishments, brads, pearl arrows and splatter stamps from Prima Marketing

Lattice chipboard by Blue Fern Studios

Wood effect title Thickers by American Crafts

Mini title phrase by Tim Holtz

Linked circle stencil by The Crafter's Workshop

Embossing folder by Sizzix

Pigments inks by Avery Elle

Silks acrylic paints

Embossing powders by Lindy's Stamp Gang

Distress Inks by Tim Holtz for Ranger Inks

Light molding paste by Golden

Thanks for dropping by,

BeYOUtiful You

How has everyone's week been so far? It's been a slow week here; quiet with Miss C back in school and hubby still away on business. Time enough to do a couple of layouts this week.

BeYOUtiful You

 The patchwork square is a shrunk down version of a full 12"x12" patterned paper which I felt was too big for the page. I just cut out the patchwork from the full page and assembled it on an 8"x8" square before pasting it on the wood grain background.

I die cut the polaroids and added some journal cards in the frames. For the title, I die cut the 'beYoutiful' and added gold embossing powder.

I wanted to add a secondary title so I die cut the 'life' and added a white border around it to match the other ready die cut words that were in the embellishments pack.

Products Used

Patterned paper, die cuts and chipboard by Simple Stories Life Documented collection

Polaroid and title die by Kaisercraft

Gold embossing powder by Ranger Inks

Thanks for looking,

School Photos Done

I finally sat myself down and got working on Miss C's annual school photos which have been sitting in my photo cubby since 2012 to now. I bought a pack of school embellishments and just grabbed some other papers from my stash to match. Pretty easy really, as they are mostly just in primary colours.

The class photo takes up a large space, so I kept the pages clean and simple, with just a few accents here and there. I split the embellishment pack over the three pages and still have some left over for next year.  The fun thing about doing all three years at once is you can really see how Miss C and her little classmates have grown and changed from year to year.

Year 2

Products Used

Patterned paper by Simple Stories Life Documented

Die cuts, chipboard and stickers from Snap! School and Life Documented

Puffy Thickers by American Crafts

Number 2 by Jenni Bowlin cards 

 

Year 3

Products Used

Patterned papers by Pebbles Jen Hadfield Homemade and Simple Stories Daily Grind

Die cuts by Snap! School

Title Thickers by American Crafts 

Year 4

Products Used
Patterned papers by Pebbles Jen Hadfield Homemade and Simple Stories Daily Grind
Embellishments by Snap! School and Life Documented
Title Thickers by American Crafts

Easy and quick pages that can be done in one afternoon. Don't know why I didn't do them earlier. Ha.

Thanks for dropping by,

Loving Our Life

Back from Bali and missing it so much. Every morning, we would start off with an hour of yoga before sitting down for breakfast and planning our day. We all had our own interests, from massages to learning to surf or just sitting by the pool.

On one of the days, we all went up to Ubud for a raw food lunch at Alchemy. Goodness, that was such a good meal. Even our die hard meat lovers were amazed. If you ever get to Ubud, this is a must try.

One week was certainly not enough and we are already planning our next group holiday next year. It really makes you appreciate how lucky we are to be able to live the lives we live; being able to afford holidays and sharing it with good friends, hence my next layouts.

 Living A Lucky Life

I love the simplicity of this page with just the blue, dark pinks and gold. I dug into my "travel" Lstash for the embellishments. I love the separate boys and girls photos.

Love the glitter phrase but wish it 'favourite' was spelt with a 'u'. For the kraft title, I added a white pen stitching to make it pop.

 I really dug deep for the flourish rub ons and I love how they frame the photos.

I love the globe - wish I had more of them. I added more flourish rub ons on this corner.

Products Used
Patterned papers by Echo Park Anything Goes collection
Globe, airplane and geotag die cuts by Amy Tangerine bits
Tag and postcard die cut by Making Memories (discontinued)
Rub ons by Making Memories (discontinued)
Silver glitter phrase sticker by Heidi Swapp
Kraft title thickers by Amy Tangerine
Pink camera button by Freckled Fawn
Pearl arrow by Prima Marketing
Washi tape from stash

 

The Sweet Life

This paper collection is just too cute. I love the mini pink triangle background paper and it's a great foil for the other colours, just as in the first layout. I can't help but smile at Miss C relaxing on the lilo.

I cut the phrase from another paper and popped it up on the speech bubble diecut. I heat embossed the wooden camera with blue and silver powder and added a little metal flower brad.

I cut the flamingo and blue stripped paper to size before using my new stitched curve die to shape the top edge. I love this continuing trend of transparent sticker.

 I really dug deep into my stash for these flowers; I think the very first ones I ever got but think they go well with this layout.

Products Used

Patterned papers by Echo Park Anything Goes collection
Journal cards by Studio Calico
Wooden camera and flowers by Prima Marketing
Embossing powders by Ranger and Lindy's Stamp Gang
Metal flower by AC Dear Lizzy
Distress paints by Tim Holtz for Ranger Inks
Transparent sticker title by Kaisercraft
Teeny alphas by Glitz Designs
Pink polka dot washi by Bella Blvd
Bling and sequins from stash

Thanks for dropping by,

HK Memory Chest Kit Club - April 2015

Hello from sunny Bali. We're here for a week of fun in the sun. A little too much sun, really. It's been pretty hot and humid here, but we're lucky to be five steps away from a pool. We're staying at a villa with some of our friends and Miss C finally got to try out her mermaid tail. She is a natural and mastered it immediately. We have until the end of the week for her to grow gills.

Right now, most of our friends have gone out to enjoy a few drinks and we decided to stay back at the villa, just chilling and relaxing. Perfect time to prop my feet up, put on a DVD and write this blog post.

This month's kit is again, jam-packed with goodies. Such a cute kit, with cartoon images themed around food and breakfast in particular and so much fun to play with.  Get out those breakfast/food pics and play with us.

April Kit 2015
October Afternoon “Saturday Mornings” – Bacon
October Afternoon “Saturday Mornings” – Omelette
October Afternoon “Saturday Mornings” – Cereal
October Afternoon “Saturday Mornings” – Hashbrowns
October Afternoon “Saturday Mornings” – Orange Juice
October Afternoon “Saturday Mornings” – Designer Brads
October Afternoon “Saturday Mornings” – Cardstock Stickers Word
October Afternoon “Saturday Mornings” – Cardstock Die-Cuts Tidbits
October Afternoon Daily Flash Washi Tape – Days Of Week
Crate Paper Thickers Alpha Stickers – Marquee/Chipboard
American Crafts Whittles Clothes Pins – Words
Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Open Book – Glitter Ribbon Bows
American Crafts Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic Roller Stamp – Phrases & Icons
Bella Blvd Enamel Stickers – Guacamole Doodads
Multicraft Imports Button Embellishment – Reds
Lara’s Crafts Alphabet Tags – Natural

Optional Add-ons
October Afternoon Saturday Mornings Cloud Background Stamp
October Afternoon Saturday Mornings Tin Pins
October Afternoon Saturday Mornings 12×12 Cardstock Journaling Cards
Idea-ology Spiral Bound Sticker Book 4.5″X8.5″ Small Talk
Idea-ology Spiral Bound Sticker Book 4.5″X8.5″ Big Chat


Here's my sketch for the month:

Ridiculously Big Fabulous Brekkie

 The perfect photo for this themed collection. I kept the colours quite neutral for this layout with more browns and yellows. I just noticed that both photos are exactly the same; I had slightly different ones but I didn't notice I printed the same one twice until now. Oh well.

The photos were from our trip last Easter to Orlando, Florida. Big portions are of course a must but I think we ordered more than we bargained for, hence the title. I die cut the 'fabulous' from one of the patterned papers and made it into a chipboard title by adding more layers.

 Just a little accent corner on the top left of the layout.

 I love these little word stickers which you can just stick on randomly. Perfect for the photo. For the background, I used a tan cardstock, added random alphabet stamping and then splattered on a bit of brown ink. I finished the page with some enamel stars for an added accent.

Extra Elements: Fabulous die from Kaisercraft, tan cardstock

Cute Buddies

 For this layout, I wanted a white background to bring out the colours of the papers. My Jake cat looks well impressed with getting his picture taken and with the little girl using him as a pillow.

I love the wooden word tiles; just string them up with some twin or jute to make an instant banner. I die cut the hearts out of the add-on patterned paper in a rainbow of colours and added similar coloured paints underneath to look like they are dripping down the page.

The kit comes with a pack of ready die cuts; perfect for date stamping and adding accents.

I splattered some pink paint on the white background before adding my other elements. I love the wooden pegs which add an extra fun accent to your page.

Extra Elements: Distress paints by Tim Holtz for Ranger Inks, jute twine, white cardstock

Hello Cuties

I love the yellow cloud paper and how it contrasts with the blue good morning paper. I kept this layout pretty simple to concentrate on the cute photos instead. I had to dig deep into the archives for these photos of the two cousins at four and five. I must have had my mind on our holiday as these pics were taken on our first trip to Bali in 2010.

I diecut the 'hello' and again made it thicker by diecutting and sticking layers of cardstock behind it. The kit comes with a generous bag of buttons and I stuck them around the page as well as some brads.

There are some really cute images on the the cereal patterned paper and I cut out some of the critters to add around the page. I die cut the rainbow from some of the left over patterned papers from the add-ons. I just love this owl family.

Another cute critter cut out from the cereal paper. Adorable.

Extra Elements: Hello and rainbow die from Sizzix

Here are some of the layouts and projects from the rest of the DT:

Pineapple Icecream by Belly Lau

Sofa Bed by Belly Lau

 Cool Man by Belly Lau

 Sweet Candy by Belly Lau

My First Radish by Erika Lui

What's For Breakfast by Erika Lui

Eat Eat by Erika Lui

Chai Wan Crop

14th April (Tuesday)

10:30am - 12:30pm

Hosted by Grace Wong

16th April (Thursday)

10:30am - 12:30pm

Hosted by Belly Lau

Hope you enjoyed all the layouts and looking forward to seeing you at crop time.