Full of handmade ~ Christmas 2012

I've been hand-making Christmas cards for years, but they were pretty basic.

Over the year I've been involving in lots of art and crafts and learned much more techniques on paper crafts. This year I tried to make a difference.

I added lots of new ideas, new elements to my cards. On each card I have re-used many scraps such as Christmas catalogues, promotional materials etc. I think it's good way to recycle!

One of my friends asked if I am working as a designer for Hallmark....hhahahahah, Of course not!

But I do have a dream that I can sell out these cards and donate the amount of money to the charity, not sure if it's possible to make it happen next year?

 

 

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!!!!

Handmade gift ~ Wedding Frame

2012 is the year of Dragon, which many Chinese believes it's a great year for getting married and giving birth. 

I got so many friends and family members having their wedding this year. As a crafter, I make gifts for them, to celebrate and to give them a good memory.

I made a wedding frame last weekend for an ex-colleague, I knew him since 10 years ago when he joined the company as a fresh-graduate; and now a solicitor.

When I was taking my maternity leave after giving birth to my first girl, Anson, he was so nice to agreeing to be my maternity cover at work. By that time he was on leave before practising in a law firm. I feel very grateful of his help.

The wedding frame I made was made from a wooden frame bought from a local store, it's in 3-panels. The design on this frame is quite basic, I've used some stickers to record their wedding date on the left panel; stamped and embossed "On this day".

On the other side, I put their "initials" on top of 2 loving hearts and wish them "Happy Together"! Last but not the least, I added a beautiful prima flower to decorate.

In the middle, I added their wedding photo there and I hope this frame become part of their new home. 

I wish them a great marriage, all the best and happy together ever after!!!

Mini Art Journal ~ Suzi Blu

Back in August, I browsed on Grace Wong's blog, , I fell in love with her recent project – A mini Art Journal. In particular, I love the girl on the cover. 

 

After some research, I found the girl was designed by a well-known designer, SUZI BLU, and I immediately ordered 2 clear stamps from a UK online store and got them shipped to my colleague in the London office and then on my hands last month.

However I’ve not made anything with those stamps yet but have been waiting for the class conducted by Grace Wong, at HK Memory Chest and finally it happened on this Tuesday 25^th Sept – Part I.

(Photo Courtesy by HK Memory Chest)

Nearly all faces of the classmates are familiar, there are all of our design.  

(Photo Courtesy by HK Memory Chest)

I was surprised to see that there were lots of techniques involved for making this little art journal. Now I know why Grace decided to split the class into part I (covers) & II (inner pages).

(Photo Courtesy by HK Memory Chest.Thanks for taking this photo.)

I learned a lot from that and especially I love learning about how to dye paper, and colour the doll with Tim Holtz distress Ink markers! Yeah!!

I love this soooooo much and I look forward to the 2^nd part of the class!

ENJOY OUR EVERYDAY!!!!