Fall Colours

Hi everyone,

I finally got round to scrapbooking a few photos from our New York trip last month. My favourites were the ones from the pumpkin patch; not least because it was perfect weather that day.

Looking at these photos, I can't believe that a week later, a fickle lady named Sandy would strike through this area and turn everything upside down. I heard that people are still staying in hotels three weeks later as their homes are inhabitable. My prayers go out to those still suffering from this and hope that they can get back into their homes soon.

This layout is also based on the November sketch challenge from My Creative Sketchbook.

Picture Perfect Fall Day

 I flipped the sketch to the left and created an "outdoor" scene with the trees and clouds. I also grouped four photos together instead of use just the one photo.

The orange cloud acts as the circle element in the sketch.

I pop-dotted many of the elements to give it more dimension.

Products Used

All papers and stickers from Bella Blvd Finally Fall collection 2011 

Thanks for dropping by,

Happy Family

Hi everyone,

Although we don't celebrate Thanksgiving, I am influenced by this holiday and the connotations it brings with it. I must say, there are so many things everyone should be grateful for. If we all spend more time reflecting on the good things and what we have in our lives and less on the negatives, we would all be happier people.

One of the most important things in my life, as with many other people, would be my family, so here's a layout with my two treasures. It's not often we get a good photo of us as a family, as I'm usually the one holding the camera. This one was taken during our cruise holiday in April this year.

Happy Family

I love the pretty pinks and oranges together.

 I used a mask with modelling paste to create the textured diamond effect.

 One of my favourites things is grouping flowers. It just gives your page a touch of elegance.

A good motto to live by.

Products Used

Papers, stickers and alphabet letters from Webster's Pages

Flowers, pendant and dangling trinkets from Prima Marketing

Modelling Paste by Golden

Mask from Crafter's Workshop

Liquid Pearls from Ranger

Thanks for dropping by,

It's Her, KP

Hey there,

I seem to start my posts apologizing for the lack of posts lately; but, I really am sorry for the silence for the last two weeks. It's been non-stop here with projects, cakes, family stuff and just not enough hours in the day to do everything. Top it all off with my indestructible Macbook Pro, self-destructing this week and not being able to get alot of my programs back. Luckily, the important things, i.e. photos, were all backed up. Thank goodness for iCloud and thank goodness for the Genius boys at the Apple store. I now have 270 days left before my Apple Care runs out and I'm on my own. Gulp.

I swear I am close to posting new projects, but in the meantime, a lucky few (myself included) got to meet Kelly Purkey of Studio Calico fame, in person and take a class or two. If you've not heard of her, I suggest you hop over to her blog and check out her work. Early last year, during the CHA, we, as a group  from HKMC, got to meet her and begged her to come over to Hong Kong. She was so sweet and promised she would make it out some time. 

To our delight and fortune, Kelly had planned a trip to Tokyo to see friends and decided to drop by Hong Kong for that promised visit. Needless to say, I was one of the first to raise my hand when the date was set for the classes.

We got to work with a mini-pack of Amy Tangerine Sketchbook papers, Thickers, stickers and Kelly's own brand new acrylic stamps. She did two classes; a mini-album in the morning and a layout in the afternoon. I wanted to do both classes but was only able to do the mini-album since there were other obligations in the afternoon. Boo. Regardless, I had a lot of fun. It was nice to see a lot of familiar faces and we all had a good laugh and walked away with some very cute albums.

Thanks so much to Kelly and to HKMC for organizing the event. We also hope that Kelly enjoys the rest of her time here in Hong Kong and Japan. Hope to see her back out here again in the future.

Thanks for dropping by!

Cakes, Bakes and Classes

Hi All,

It's been another busy week. Classes to teach, cakes to make and a school trip to supervise. I've not had time to do any crafty projects this week although I have lots of ideas.

I did my two patchwork frame classes on Tuesday and Thursday. It's lovely how wonderful each person's project came out. Everyone got a mixture of Tim Holtz Ideo-logy hardware for their projects, mixed with some other trinket finds. They also got to frame their projects in the Ikea Ribba frame. I didn't get any photos of the class in progress, but I think Erika took some. I'll try to get them off her to post later.

I also had a macarons order for Wednesday and two cake orders for Friday and Sunday. I do love my cake making and it's a great creative outlet for me of a different kind. The funny thing is though - building up all my cake tools and supplies are just like building my scrapbooking supplies and I seem to have just as many edible ink colours as I do crafting ink colours. Hope I never mix up the two.

Bowling Lane Cake

 This was for a good friend's son who had a bowling party. Inside, is vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream. The outside is covered in fondant with gum paste bowling pins and ball.

Puppy Dog Toy Cake

 This one was for another good friend's daughter who just turned one. I love doing sculpted cakes and this one was fun as it was modeled over an actual stuffed toy dog that belongs to the birthday girl. The inside is chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream. 

Macarons

I have to admit that I'm not the best at macarons. The first time I tried to make them, it took me seven tries before I got them right. Since then, I've struggled to get them right, trying out all sorts of recipes and ratios. I was given the latest recipe by a friend and these ones have turned out the best. In fact, macarons making has vexed me quite a bit and I finally decided to sign up for a class on how to make them. I'll be doing that this coming Tuesday. I hope this will help me create flawless macarons from now on.

This coming week will be more relaxed, so I'll have to buckle down and get some major scrapbooking done. Hopefully, I'll have something to show you very soon.

Thanks for dropping by,