The hand-in-hand Sisters

I confess I was too busy last month due to the change of domestic helper and missed the opportunity to submit an entry to the November contest of My Creative Sketches (MCS).

This month, I got a few days off in Christmas so I have been forcing myself to get one done for the December contest.

In early December, it was rainy in Hong Kong. I took a camera with me on a Sunday but did not go to anywhere fancy. We had to stay indoor so we went for a relaxing and some shopping in Tsim Sha Tsui, one of the tourism spots in Hong Kong.

While we were window shopping, my elder sister was so good to hold the hand of her little sisters. My little one started walking not long ago but she always loves walking on her own or hold my hand only, just for safely. That was the first time she allowed her elder sister to hold her hand.

I captured the scene and I said to myself I must create something out of this.

There are 1-2 sets of scrapbooking kits sitting there and I got no chance to touch them yet, I used the one I bought from HK Memory Chest November kit for my layout, Though I used only 1 piece of paper and a few alphabet stickers though.

Before adding anything to the page, I handmade a butterfly stencil by cutting off a a few butterflies using the Sizzix Movers and Shapers die; then I sprayed some colours on it. I love the effects on the background.

I also added a few Prima flowers and a two chipboard butterflies which I cut using the Sizzix Movers & Shapers die.

For the title, Sisters, it was cut by Sizzix Eclips Machine. I bought Eclips for almost 2 months but this is the first time that I really try playing with it... finally!!!

I used the ECAL software, chose the font type and type out the word "Sisters", added a Shadow, and it cut automatically. It's really amazing!

I used Cricut before and I sold it out because I seldomly use it, though I really like the cute graphics on most of their cartridges. Once I knew that Eclips enables to type and cut, as well as import an image and cut.... I made the decision and bought it, and I’m now happy with it.

Merry Christmas & Happy 2013!

Honeymoon travel Album

 I attended another class at HK MEMORY CHEST and made a photo album.

Tutor was Angela McDaniel, a mother of 3 kids. Angela is talented in creating double layout and other projects recording every precious moment of her lovely family. I heard Angela was actually inspired by Heidi Swapp's idea - Memory File for getting this album done.

Before the class I did not pay attention to the film, I just remember Angela put her kids photos in the album so I prepared some photos of Anson & Hannah too.

Arrived at HKMC, I found the pattern paper are on the theme of "Travel", I think I should change my mind and get another set of photos from previous holidays. Anyway I knew I wouldn't be able to finish the entire album in 3 hours because lots of techniques have been covered.

The cover of the album was simply made of paper file, which are available in any stationery store.
I sprayed a beautiful orange ink over a stencil and created a nice "monogram" pattern on the covers.

There are lots of inner pockets in this Travel fotoflip album which give me lots of space to store pictures and other accessories.

I kept thinking of what pictures I should put on this album. In the past few years, the most memorable,  meaningful and enjoyable holiday is our HONEYMOON in 2005 ~ Rome and London.

As soon as I went home I took out the disc of the pictures and chose some and printed them out. It also gave me (and my husband) a good chance to review them.

I put a cover picture and stuck a "Our honeymoon" sticker below it.

This adhesive is really interesting, just blow towards it with the heat gun and lots of curly bits and bops appeared.

Remember when.... we took a direct flight to London, then took another flight to Rome on the same day of arrival. It was December 2005 and it was very cold, but no snow.

We love Rome, we visited the Colosseo, Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani), Vatican City, and the city of Rome for 4 days.

The most exciting moment in Rome was when we planned to visit the Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano, there was a special mass being held that time, hosted by Pope Benedict XVI. As we are from Hong Kong, we feel so blessed to see Pope in person.

Before returning to Hong Kong we spent 2 days in London, and visited a few places such as the Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, London Eye, etc. I have been working for UK companies, this was not my first time to visit London, while I'm still loving it. I love London!

The best thing to look at these pictures is that I am not looking too much different from 7 years ago. However my husband has changed quite much ...more mature now! : )

Besides spending some time to choose pictures, I've also found I saved a collection of Boarding passes, train tickets, bus tickets from the trip.

This travel fotoflip album is really the best place to store our sweet memory!

Farewell Mini album for my domestic helper

We have recently changed our domestic helper.

Since my 1st daughter was 4 months old, my old helper Lani has been working with us. However she decided not to renew her employment contract with us as she is looking for a more relaxing job. So we took her for a farewell dinner at L Hotel Island South 3 weeks ago and presented her with my handmade album.

Since there has been lots of big changes within my family in the past 4 years, I feel so thankful and grateful for my helper's work and contribution in our family. She took care of my girls so well which make me safe to leave home sometimes to sort out other important matters.

I made this lovely house-shape mini album for her which contains some pictures of my two girls and the precious moments when she stayed with my kids.

Actually there are only a few pictures I've taken when my helper was staying with the girls. It is because I don't usually take my helper with me when I go out with the family. As I always want to take care of the kids by myself. Only a couple were taken last month in a occasion.

The MINI ALBUM is in the shape of a house, representing our family. It was die-cut by SIZZIX BIGZ DIE CUT, via Big shot.

I used the paper stock from My Mind’s Eye’sThe Sweetest thing,very clean and sweet series. The page size of the album is not very big, so I did not add to many decoration. But I used Kaiser Crafts 的 FINE & SUNNY COLLECTABLES,they have many choices of images like Sun, Flowers, Birds, etc. I stamped a few messages and I think they look great as a whole.

On her last day of service, I did not stay home but she reported to me over the phone that she's finished the handover with my new helper. However I still can't control my tear when I said thank you to her on the phone. 

I know she will be staying in Hong Kong and work for another family, but still.... am very grateful for her help in the last 4 years... keep in touch!!!!

Disney layout ~ Anson is 4

This was my 2nd layout in the week when we had a long weekend in October, however this is a belated one.

I have been planning to work on a Disney layout, and I bought a new set of Disney & Friends Cartridge for Cricut from U.S. but can only work on it now.

We celebrated my elder daughter, Anson's birthday in July and we went for a buffet dinner at Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel. We took a lot of pictures with the characters include Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Goofy. 

So I picked some pictures and made this layout. Title is "Anson is 4"!

I cut the some images of Mickey, Minnie, Gloves, etc using the die-cutting machine - CRICUT EXPRESSION 2. Cricut is a great tool but so far I've been using it twice.　

These borders were punched out from Martha stewart punch.

As for future memory and reference, I handwrote the event, place and date.

3rd project in a week ~ Many Many Bubbles

Further to the recent kids photography class that Daddy attended, he took many lovely pictures of Anson, which has stimulated my ideas on scrapbooking layout design.

And, it's the first-ever that I've made 3 layouts in the same week.

I've use different paper series, mix and match, I've sprayed some Lime colour over the background, as I thought it was too pink. Behind the pictures I added a few punched pattern paper to decorate.

All of my pictures were printed from a digital compact photo printer, which is excellent for scrapbooking as you can print whatever picture(s) for your crafting project, sized from 2R to 4R and in different layout. Fyi, my current one is running out of paper soon and it's hard to buy the photo papers as the manufacturer has stopped producing the printer. I've therefore switched to Canon Selphy CP-900, which can print pictures sent via Wi-Fi, e.g. from your mobile phone. I will try it soon and hopefully it's good.

Last week I bought a new set of SIZZIX DIE die from HK MEMORY CHEST, it cut out a group of lovely birdies. I dyed them with watercolour and they look great.

I have been thinking for a while about what phrase I should put on this layout, as I want to tell about Anson was blowing bubbles and want to thank Daddy for taking these gorgeous pictures. Finally I've themed it as "Many Many Bubbles".

 

I bough a printable masking tape machine and tapes from Tokyo earlier this year, I used that to quote, " Daddy's 1st shots..."

I am very pleased with this layout overall!

September layout ~ Cute Hannah

We had a long weekend last week in Hong Kong to celebrating the mid-autumn festival (Full moon festival) and China's national day, which has given me a great productivity. I've been making 3 layouts over the week but one of them is still not 100% happy, so I'm only about to show you 2 of the layouts.

The following layout was done with reference to the September sketch contest hosted by My Creative Sketches. The sketch is basically comprising a few circles.

It's the first time that I trim my photos in round shapes, but they look really nice on my layout (I think!). I've picked 3 pictures of my little daughter, Hannah, which were taken at home few weeks ago.

Regarding paper stock, I used the series of The Sweetest thing (Tangerine) from My Mind’s Eye, I bought from HK Memory Chest, a well-known scrapbooking supplier in Hong Kong.

The sentiments and phrases in this paper stocks are relating to adjectives including sweet, adorable, beautiful... which are all ideal for any projects about girls. Personally I always think my Hannah is relevant to all of these adjectives. Don't you agree with me? : P

I added a few die-cut and punched butterflies in this project and I have embossed two of them.

Recently I'm in love with these flags

I put doilies and scallops behind each photos and they look perfect to go with round-shaped pictures.

The theme of this layout: “Do you know how cute you are? “ - I guess this is the feeling of every mothers towards their daughters, true?