Perfect Moments

Hello there. How is everyone doing? I can't believe that the summer holidays have begun. Time for those summer lessons. Miss C has been asking for art lessons and we just haven't been able to fit them in around school and after school activities, so this is the perfect time for it. She's so excited.

Summer also means the end of our weekly Thursday crops and kids' classes until school begins again. I'll still be scrapbooking on my own, just a little bit less as I'm hoping to do more things with Miss C while I have her at home. Just hope the weather will cool down a bit so we can do some outdoor activities. It has been swelteringly hot in Hong Kong; to the point where some people have collapsed from heat exhaustion. Not good.

Anyway, here's a layout I did a few weeks back.

Perfect Moments

This kit is so pretty. Love all the pastel colours. So spring like. Love this photo of Miss C enjoying her most favourite food - sushi.

First, I cut the scalloped patterned paper and laid that across the page.For the butterflies, I outlined them with a Heidi Swapp Minc toner pen and passed it through a laminator with gold foil.

I wound some blue thread around the diecut bobbin behind the deer to add another texture.

Products Used

Papers, die cuts and puffy stickers from Maggie Holmes Bloom collection

Flowers from Prima Marketing

Thanks for looking,

Christmas in March...Again

The last couple of days, I've been very conscientiously tidying up the study and my scrap space. Reorganizing and labeling my stamps and dies into Avery Elle pockets, my punches into different brands and photos into folders and even doing a ton of filing and paper sorting.

I was certainly on a roll and decided to get my Christmas layouts done and out the way while I was still in the mood to get things done. By now, you might know of my love for doing Christmas layouts (not!) so it was a great time to plough through them. Looks like I may make it an annual habit of scrapping Christmas in March.

All I Want For Christmas

For the whole year, Miss C has been asking for a Snoopy toy and she was such a patient girl, willing to wait for Santa to send one. I have her actual hand written Santa's wish list hidden behind the false list on the right. The little snow flake acts as a pull tab.

This kit from MCS had so many elements included, I didn't have to do much. I did add silver ink to the wooden snowflakes before embossing with glittery clear powder. I also used Wink of Stella to add some glimmer to some of the sticker accents.

 I cut out the string of lights and think they look so cute at the top of the page.

Products Used

Papersm die cuts and stickers from American Crafts Be Merry collection

Wooden snowflakes

Wink of Stella

Silver ink from Avery Elle

Glitter embossing powder from Stampendous

Build A Gingerbread House

As a contrast to the previous green layout, I wanted a bold red one. I love the large chevron background paper. Every year Miss C gets to decorate a gingerbread house. We never eat it though - I don't think they taste that great but she gets to gobble down the sweets that don't get used up.

 The die cuts are just too cute and so appropriate.

I love the mini letter stickers that come in the kit and also the glittery foam alphas.

Products Used

Papers, die cuts and mini letters from American Crafts Be Merry collection

Gingerbread stickers from Pebbles Home for Christmas collection

White glitter foam alphas from American Crafts

Christmas Cheer Happy Celebrations

Time for a double layout. I did a patchwork background with several patterned papers. We had a pretty big Christmas day lunch with eighteen around the table. Even Molly fur ball got in on the action.

My sweet Molly was right in the middle of all the present opening and loved all the tinsel and ribbons. I love the glittery red alphas I used for the titles.

 Love the chipboard 25 which I back with a green tag.

Cute paper flowers to put together.

Products Used

Papers and chipboard from Carta Bella Christmas Time collection

Brads from Simple Stories Cozy Christmas collection

Flowers from Bo Bunny Christmas Collage collection

Red glitter foam Thickers from American Crafts

Distress inks from Tim Holtz for Ranger Inks

So there you go. Ho ho ho layouts in March.  Until next year.

Thanks for dropping by,

Miss You

Start of a new week and a new layout. I was going through my photos deciding what to scrap when I came across some cheeky photos of Miss C and her cousins taken last summer and that reminded me how well they get along together. We only see them once a year, if that and I know they miss each other a lot.

 Miss You

I love the blue background paper, perfect for a boy/girl combo. I love the funny faces the kids are pulling in the photos.

I brushed on some gesso before spritzing with some Color Shine. I doodled a bit on the word stickers just to give them the extra pop as they were so close in colour to the background paper.

I haven't used my punches for a while, so decided to use several of them to create interest to the paper strips. I staggered a bunch of gold glitter banners along the bottom of the strips.

A little sketching/doodling around some of the elements and layers add some interest to the layout.

Products Used

Papers and Sticker Accents from Pebbles Jen Hadfield Home Made collection and American Crafts Shimelle collection

Jillibean Soup Blue Happy Wise Words Stickers

Glitter chipboard letters from American Crafts

White Gesso from Golden

Color Shine Primrose and Georgia Peach sprays from Heidi Swapp

Distress Markers and inks from Tim Holtz for Ranger Inks

Thanks for looking,

HKMC Retreat Reveals - American Crafts Mayberry

Hey all,

On to the sample layouts I did for the paper line reveals.  This was part of the retreat class pack which was handed out to all participants. Funnily enough, I'd already done another layout with this collection in May, which was part of  a My Creative Scrapbook kit I received.

Country Walks

This line is full of beautiful bright colours and patterns with a summery feel. The photos were taken during a long walk around a loch in Scotland this summer. Well done, Miss C for keeping up for the whole hour.

Look at those colours on the scalloped strip. I also love the little tickets - so versatile.

For the faux canvas paper, I added gold embossing powder over a floral stencil to add a little texture and interest.

Extra Elements: American Crafts Thickers, Prima Floral Stencil, Fancy Pants chalkboard tags, gold embossing powder, Studio Calico wood veneer pieces, buttons and die cut leaves, white acrylic paint

Gorgeous Smiles

I love how this collection has such a variety of colours and patterns; gingham against flowers, numbers against chevron - and it all works so well together. When I saw the flower paper, I knew which photo I wanted to use with it, and I'm sure you can see why.

For the background, I added molding paste over the same floral stencil I used in the first layout above. I then splattered on a dark pink ink and a "tea cup stain" effect with black ink in strategic places. The black chalkboard tags were stamped with white acrylic paint.

I edged all the papers with black ink to make each layer stand out.

Extra Elements: Prima floral stencil, Black Soot distress Ink, pink spray ink, Fancy Pants chalkboard tape and tags, American Crafts thickers, light molding paste

Next post:  Kaisercraft

See you soon,

Happy Sunshine Girl

Hi all,

It's the start to a busy week - cupcakes and two other cakes to make.  I guess everyone is trying to get all the birthdays out of the way before the summer holidays descend on us. On top of that, I may have a class to teach, and am going on a full day cake course myself. To round of the weekend, there will be a farewell dinner, a birthday party  and I'll most probably have family over on Sunday. Whew. Is it Sunday again yet?

This most probably means that I won't have any time to craft this week, although, I am finishing off something special for someone this week. I'll be able to show you that once I'm done with it.

In the mean time, here is a simple layout that I did last week. This was a quick one hour job. I absolutely love the photos and wanted them to stand out, so the background is pretty plain.

Happy Sunshine Girl

Isn't that the most adorable face? Even with that missing front tooth, that I'm still hoping will come through soon. I really love the blue worded background paper and how the photos and elements really pop against it.

The cutest sun and clouds overlay. Just use a couple of tiny glue dots at the corners to stick them down and you will hardly be able to see them.

Alter a simple title by adding a little more to your title to make it yours. I love the rose die cut for that pop of colour.

Gosh, those eyes get me every time. I call them her laughing eyes. Add little details just to make the photos extra special.

Products Used
Papers, chip board, die cuts and stickers all from American Crafts Mayberry collection
White foam Thickers letters from American Crafts

Thanks for stopping by,

Retreat Paper Reveal - American Crafts Chap

Chap is a small line from American Crafts based on simple geometrics. I found them perfect for male pages, so I did one on my dad and one for hubby.

Remember the Time

 The background paper reminds me of sixties decor, so I dug out this photo of my dad during that era.

 I added extra accents from Kaisercraft to bulk out the layout.

 For the black grid paper, I embossed the grid with black distress powder.

Extra Elements: Black cardstock from Bazzill, Ties and moustache accents from Kaisercraft, buttons from stash

Road Trip

 I love these photos of hubby and his best mates since his school days. They looked so young. And skinny. These guys are still good friends to this day. I sprayed over a circle stencil for the background to give a little more interest and did a double sewed border around the page.

The white scallop was again embossed with the Chap stamp set. I added some glass pebbles just as a small finish to the page.

Extra Elements: Grey cardstock by Bazzill, Foam letters by Thickers