Tuesday, May 29, 2012

A Good Heart...

I took a short break from scrapping layouts to make some cards and so here's another card made for Jessica's any theme card challenge at sketches4all. I planned for something bright, something vintage, something trendy so this is my center step creation following my own instinct.
I mainly used scraps (patterned papers from Kaisercraft), inked up the edges with distress ink and color blending with Copic.
The awesome sentiment is a downloaded freebie from TLC.

I really love the vintage children! Thanking Free Vintage Digi Stamps for the beautiful digi illustration!
Hoping you have a great time on your side! Thanks again for visiting! I'll be back shortly.
~Hugs~

Joy Is Yours Today

The weather today is pretty hot and humid, just can't stand the heat! Nevertheless I'm in crafty mood these days before I take off for a week vacation. The [Inter]National Scrapbooking Month organized by Let's Scrap is ending in a couple of days so today I decided to make a quick card for Shirley Bergsma's yellow and white card INSM challenge. I have to say yellow is not the color I like to work with but I take up the challenge anyway because I intended to make a birthday card for my close friend whose birthday is on June 4th.  

This sketch is designed by Shirley herself! Unfortunately this is the first and perhaps the last sketch of hers I ever used for my creation because Shirley has step down as a DT because she has more ultimate and pesonal affairs to deal with in her life so I wish her the best in her future endeavour. It has been nice working along with Shirley from the beginning though. 

I have chosen my favorite fancy fold to create this card. Punching the corners and edges with Martha Stewart punch and color the flowers with Copic.
I printed this beautiful vintage flower from Free Vintage Digi Stamps.

Just love the sentiment! Printed from TLC  freebies.

The sentiment from Kaisercraft is stamped with Memory ink pad.
I hope my friend will like this card and hopefully the sunny color will brighten up her special day!
Thank you for visiting me today. Wish you a sunny fun filled day.
Hugs,

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

The Siblings are heading to School

It's time again this week to design an example layout for Let's Scrap weekly challenge. I have always wanted to feature my four blessings in a layout and the sketch this week holds four photographs that is perfect for my wish. Initially my plan was to take my children to the park last week and snap them in nature surroundings but they are busy with school activities. School is their main agenda until they call it for a two weeks break {from May 25 until June 8}. And since they are so occupied, I came out with an idea to potray them in their school uniforms and snap them shortly before I take them to school the day before so this is the latest photographs of my four blessings.

They attend the same school which is easy for all of us yet 'Alyaa and 'Arif go to morning session from 7:30am to 1:15pm. Being a Year 6 pupil and in the finale year of primary school, 'Alyaa always has extra classes until 2:15pm and other programs to attend during school break as well as sports training. Meanwhile Anis attends afternoon session from 1:15pm to 6:10pm. She despise afternoon school but it allows her extra hours in the morning to watch some cartoon network...kids! As for the little one, Afza is a homeschooler who loves learning and exploring. She's a very busy kid indeed!

As this layout feauture my children in their school uniforms {except Afza}, I wanted to make a blackboard form attached with news bulletin; hence the black cardstocks and many captions. That simply explain the persons in the photos and some informations about their school program and I also listed down the things they must not forget to do and my hopes for them all...the captions are typed, cut out and inked up with mixture of Kaisercraft and Memory ink pads.

This sketch is so wonderful to follow, another great design by Cheri O'Neill.

I didn't use many materials; just some scraps, lace sticker and glitter embellishment from Cactus. I'm not a big fan of glitter but I love the colors that match the photos. Also, I have used three out of four main colors from the Malaysian flag to symbolize the country they live in (the yellow headband Afza wears represent the star and croissant in the flag).

...some close-up pics... 


The main prop in the photo is the one that carry them to school five days a week and I'm the one who drive them to school every morning and pick them up in the afternoon except Daddy picks Anis up in the evening on his way back from work. Yes, that is our routine on the week days!

Thank you again for visiting today.
Hugs!

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Learn is Fun

I made another layout for my little girl's album; oh wow, Afza is so thrilled she helped adhered the buttons with her little fingers, sweet! Over at Let's Scrap, Elizna hosted a Quick & Easy Bingo Card Layout Challenge. The rules are simple: must use bingo card and must have banner. That's interesting. However I don't have a bingo card so I downloaded a few and chose one I like best and it suits my layout perfectly.

...this is the Let's Scrap sketch I chose for my design...
Here's the bingo card I downloaded. Just right click and save on your computer. There are more bingo cards you can get HERE.

...some close-up pictures....
I used rub on letters to spell the title.
...and many rows of buttons...
The banner is made from scrap; have no idea where it is from :)
This is the first layout I ever make a banner. I love it!
Pretty petal from Momoyo.
Photo shoot on February 13, 2012 {Monday}
Afza loves drawing so much she just take a piece of A3 paper, lay it on the floor and start drawing. I like that...previously she draw on the wall!

Afza today May 20, 2012 {Sunday}
Afza was playing in the garden with her siblings when I called for her to hold her drawing {oh yes, I keep it and will give it to her in many many moons to come} so I can take her photograph. She loves to photo shoot so much and I enjoy taking her photos.
I will leave you here my friend and will make a come back again; hopefully you will too. Thanks for visiting me and big hugs!

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Good Times

It's a beautiful weekend with sunrays, soft wind and birds chirping; the beauty of my surrounding allow me to scrap a layout for Laura's INSM12#14 challenge at Let's Scrap. This time I chose an old photograph of my son to do another layout for him on a Timepiece Gears collection from Bo Bunny. I love the vintage look of these patterned papers and perfect for distressing.
Laura wants us to incorporate five recycled items on a layout. Here's my creation:

...here's the sketch I chose for my layout...

Materials used: pp (Bo Bunny), Tim Holtz distress ink,  Kaisercraft ink, stamping (Kaisercraft, Heidi Grace), acid free drawing block, watercolor and recycled items

The surface of the watch is from my  husband's broken wrist watch. One day last year my little girl played with the broken watch and peal off the surface; I thought that's just great for scrapping some day. The rosette is from my son's former school exercise book; I used the brown cover to make the rosette.
The clock pieces are from another broken wall clock. I save them for a good cause! The yellow star is from one of my girl's broken head gear and save on that one too. The brown matting of the photo is also from my son's school exercise book from the previous year. I have also used the hardcover off a drawing block to make the matting for the clock. I had hard time cutting it out with my circle cutter so I used a scissor to cut the circles...only after I have adhered them on the cardstock, my big girl told me she just make a circle from the hardcover with the circle cutter very easily. I was like, "...really, how did you do that?" and she replied, "I changed the blade and it's very sharp!" ...pffft, and there I was struggling with my circle cutter...why did I never think of blunt blade in the first place!
I used the traditional method of splatting watercolors onto white drawing block using old toothbrush and blow away the blot of colors with straw to create lines or pictures. My children saw what I was doing and they helped me blow as well (they have learnt this at school anyway).
The string is from a package from my sister; I simply ink it up. My favorite item is the washer! I always check the pockets of my husband's work pants to make sure it is empty before I load it into the washing machine; and most of the times I see lots of things like screws, bolt, nuts, washer, banknotes and coins. For this layout I decided to spray the washers with black color and used glue gun to adhere them {you can still see the glue gun here; well, I will clean it up later} =D
I have used the back hardcover of the drawing block to make the swirls and ink it up. 
Another swirls from recycle drawing block hardcover to form a heart shape.
This has been a fun project excluding the blunt blade, lol. The best part is getting my children's involvement. They were doing their revision while I did my layout but the kids often come over to watch me so that is why I try not to scrap when they are home but the weekend is just great for scrapping because I don't have to drive them to school and have plenty of time for scrapping and getting lots of distraction too :)
Thanks for visiting today and have a great weekend!
Hugs!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Mom's Passion

Today I spent a couple hours making a layout for Susanna's INSM12#11 challenge at Let's Scrap. Her challenge is based on a bingo chart. It's so great to be given the chance to choose what we like and I chose bling, flowers, journaling and three or more pictures for my layout. It is perfect for my mother who loves flowers especially orchids. She has grown orchids for over 30 years and she knows everything about them; needless to say the amount of money she spent on them too :)

,,,this is the sketch by Debby I chose for my layout...
...and the bingo chart by Susanna...

Materials used: pp, ink (Kasiercraft), Ranger's distress ink, Marta Stewart punch, gem (Momoyo), rhinestone/bling (Say It In Crystals from Prima), sticker letters (Webster's Pages)

...I love distressing...
...I also distressed the photo edges with sandpaper...
...lovely catalya...

...oh yes, Mom is so happy when her orchid blooms...and talk about it endlessly...
...love the bling {love red!}...Mom is so passionate of her orchids...
Thank you for visiting today! You really make my day!
Hugs!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Your Guiding Hand will remain with me Forever

Yesterday my children would like me to make cards for their teachers to celebrate Teacher's Day on May 16 every year. Like every other year, they often ask me money to buy gifts for their teachers, however last year 'Alyaa decided to give 'green plants' in pots {extras from my garden} to all the teachers who taught her after hearing my story {a story I was told by my mother} that during my mom's study era in the 40's to 60's; life was tough and basically the kampong folks worked very hard to make ends meet to enable their children to school. The only way to achieve better life is through education. They have great respect for the teachers for they are the ones who teach the unfortunate ones for free!
The teachers are very hardworking but pretty strict according to my mom. She never forgets how fierceful her math teacher was; the person she respect so much who taught her counting and she's pretty good at it! Mom and her math teacher became neighbors for many years, sadly, he passed away some years ago. She said most poor parents often give the teachers vegetable they grow even chicken for the teachers as appreciation. 'Alyaa thought that's amazing {..."I can save money!" she thinks.). I was excited to know her teachers comments when she got home from school; they loved the green plants also known as 'money plant' because it is a symbol of money luck to the Chinese belief.        
This Teacher's Day, my children want to give their teachers cards! That's it!
I have many challenges to do for Let's Scrap this week so I picked Jennifer's INSM12#10 challenge to make two cards.  
Jennifer's rule is to make two or more handmades (embellishement). I thought since this card is for her special teacher, I decided to combine two creativities between 'Alyaa and me. The focal point is the ribbon flowers which 'Alyaa made herself. She was so happy to see the finished card upon returning from netball practise;
I'm glad :)
Materials used: sentiment (Close To My Heart), distress ink (Ranger's), ink (StazOn, Kasiercraft), stamp (Kodomo), jewelled florettes (Petaloo), green petal (Kaisercraft), pp (Kaisercraft), ribbon and buttons
...this is the sketch used for my card design above...
...........................................................................................................................................................
I love making this card for Anis's class teacher. She said it's too beautiful and chose other cards I have made before for her teachers instead, hmmm. 'Alyaa grab the chance and took this one for her class teacher! Great! 
I made the rosettes last night. I love making them and instead of finishing off this card right away, I made more rosettes to keep since the glue gun is on, lol.
Materials used: pp, rub on and ink (Kaisercraft), gem (Momoyo), buttons 
...the sketch used for my card design above...
Thank you for visiting today and hope to see you again next time.
Hugs!