Trick or Treat?

Brr... I'm still warming up from being outside for an hour trick-or-treating with the kids. It was my first time trick-or-treating ever. Watching my little dinosaur wagging her little tail on her huge derriere running toward people's doors is just hilarious.

This layout wraps up a week of Halloween projects. When it was announced that Memory Makers was shutting down, I was truly bummed. I guess I will forever be just a runner-up to the last Masters contest. This layout was published in the last issue of Memory Makers magazine. I still see the issue on the stands every time I go to Archiver's, and I'm reminded of this loss to the scrapping industry and to me.

I hope you all had a great Halloween! My kids will be enjoying the fruits of their "labor" for the months to come. Second Child handed me her trick-or-treat sack (courtesy of Macy's, lol) and said to me: "妈妈, 你拿着. 太重了!" (Mama, you hold it. Too heavy!) HI-LA-RIOUS!!

Scrap Halloween with Graphic 45

This is a stretch, isn't it? I tried it on purpose, to use Graphic 45 papers in an unusual way, especially considering it's the Fashionista line for Halloween! I did this layout for the call for Halloween pages by Memory Makers back in March this year. LOL. Good try, Jing-Jing, LOL. It's not all bad, after all, the story of the bug costume has been recorded. I have to laugh though, talk about one incoherent looking layout, and I added a Cosmo Cricket bug to boot! LOL.

Don't forget the huge Purple Cows contest folks!! Help me win, please! LOL.

Me? Over the Top?

I interrupt the regularly scheduled Halloween week to accept an award...

Thank you Lydia for passing on this award! I hope at least the content of my blog is of some interest to those who read it!

Here's the rule: I need to pass this award on to five people, post on their blog to let them know I left this award, and then I need to answer a list of questions in ONE word.

1. Where is your cell phone? None
2.Your hair? Ugly
3. Your mother? Hardworking
4. Your father? Smart
5. Your favorite food? Italian
6.Your dream last night? None
7. Your favorite drink? Tea
8. Your dream/goal? Unrealized
9. What room are you in? Scraproom
10. Your hobby? Scrapbooking
11. Your fear? H1N1
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? There
13. Where were you last night? Church
14. Something that you aren't? Patient
15. Muffins? Top
16. Wish list item? Punches
17. Where did you grow up? Shanghai
18. Last thing you did? TV
19. What are you wearing? Clothes
20. Your TV? Old
21. Your Pets? None
22. Friends? Wonderful
23. Your life? Good
24. Your mood? Normal
25. Missing Someone? Sure
26. vehicle? Toyota
27. Something your not wearing? Makeup
28. Your favorite store? Archiver's
29. Your favorite color? Brown
30. When was the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? October
32. Your best friend? Several
33. One place that I go to over and over? Michael's
34. Facebook? Barely
35. Favorite place to eat? Yes

Now I pass on the torch to Deana, Sarah, Jessy, Samantha, and Dee Dee. Group hug please!!! Oh wait... DH thinks that I had H1N1! I hope I did! It's over now other than the coughing. It would have been nice it was indeed the oinky flu, because then I would be immune and if the family goes down with it, I would be healthy to care for everyone! Let's hope that it was that!!

Spooky Projects #2 and MS Punches!

If I had planned properly, I would have had these cards before my department's annual United Way auction. Each year, I donate a bunch of cards to the auction. Talk about a win-win situation: I get rid of a stack of cards and they in turn bring money to United Way. I just don't know if anyone would have any use for Halloween cards. I mean, who sends them? Asks the Halloween Scrooge...

Isn't the Martha Stewart spider web punch fun? If you haven't seen what I did with the corner spider web punch on a circle, you must check it out here on Prism's blog.

You can see the black cardstock against this really dark purple cardstock, but I used Martha Stewart's drippy goo punch for the border, oh well, you can't see it well.

Speaking of Martha Stewart's punches, have you seen the new ones? I flipped out when I finally went to a Michael's that is 20 minutes from my house!! I was shaking so much trying to decide which ones to buy first. Here is a really good listing of all the new ones mixed in with the old ones. They are on sale at M's at 25% off this week so I can't use my coupons, grr... I can't wait for Sunday and rush there to get more punches. I did pick up a few anyway:

I can't wait for these to hit the M's shelves!! I really MUST go there more often, like every other day just so that I don't miss out!!! LOOK AT THESE!!!!

Okay enough of this, I have already died a thousand deaths coveting these punches!! So funny that just a few days ago, Trish from WIP asked me in a questionnaire, "Anything you are dying to get your hands on?" That was when I was blissfully unaware of these new punches, and I answered that "if I'm dying for it, I have it already." And really people, NO scrapping products is worth DYING for, so if I feel the case of death coming on, I cure myself by making that purchase!! Now M's needs to hurry up and get these in stock so I can once again prevent death by covetousness.

Spooky Week of Halloween

I don't like candy. I don't like chocolates. So you see, Halloween does nothing for me! Worse yet, we have to find costumes for the kids to wear!! It would be easy if we lived in warmer climates but to go trick-or-treating on October 31 in Minnesota means to wear coats, mittens, hats, scarves, so what would be the point of a cute costume? Ah, before you think I'm a Halloween scrooge, then you would indeed be right! *laugh* And does America need more sweets to rot its teeth?

One thing that has grown on me the last couple of years was how much the scrappy/crafty world embraces this "holiday." All the cute projects, cards, pages are frankly irresistible to me! Thus while I'm still opposed to the idea of costumes and candies, I am all over making projects for this "holiday." *laugh* So I am going to do my own week of Halloween projects here on the blog. I think I have 5 projects that are Halloween related that I can share!! Is it me or is that a lot for a Halloween scrooge?!

First up is a recent layout I did as a guest blogger for AdornIt. My favorite is the Wicked Dots paper which I cut up to accent the page. I also have these tiny little photos, so I cut a few of them up in diamond shape to match the paper. These photos were taken in March of this year, shortly after I received this hand-me-down costume from a friend! This costume is actually going to work for our weather!! She'll be plenty warm in this! YAY!!


I hope you like this layout and check back for more this week! Also, please don't forget to sign up on Purple Cows blog or Facebook and use me as a referral, read all about the big contest here. Thank you so much!

Let's Win Together

Purple Cows is taking the scrapbooking industry by storm with two huge contest! I am asking for your help to win a Purple Cows DT only contest, and I hope you will enter the public contest!

Step 1: Sign up to follow Purple Cows blog: Purple Cows Blog, or sign up to be a fan Purple Cows Facebook Fan Page, and type in Purple Cows. Be sure to say that Jing-Jing sent you!

How does this help me win the DT only contest? The DT member who has the most referrals wins $2000 in cash. Yes, you read that correctly! Purple Cows is just an amazing manufacturer to work for, seriously, who else does this??

Step 2: Once you have signed up and used me as a referal, please let me know so I can enter you into my own drawing at the end of the contest. If I win the $2000, I will paypal my winner $200, so your nonscrapping friends are welcome to enter. Even if I don't win, I will have a drawing still and I will send out a scrappy RAK! It'll be good stuff.

Then!!! Please, my dear scrapping friends, enter the Purple Cows public contest!!!

Create a crafting project of ANY kind, as long as you use at least one of our MOO-riffic Purple Cows Tools. Send photos of you using the Cow product(s) in the creative process on your project, as well as the finished work. Type up a little paragraph about your Purple Cows Tool(s), and what you like about them. Then submit your entry to us via email/messaging on our Blogspot/FB Fan Page. The contest runs from 12:01am, October 20, 2009, through 11:59pm, December 31, 2009.The contest is open to any crafter who follows the above rules.

The Winners: The winners of this contest will be announced live on the Diva Craft Lounge Radio Show at the CHA Winter Show 2010! There will be five winners for this contest, four runners up, and one grand prize winner.Runners Up - Each of the four will receive $1000.00 each in Purple Cows Products! Grand Prize - Will receive $5000.00 in Purple Cows Products!

So wait no more and sign up and put me down as a referral, and then get going on making your projects!

News-a-hoppin'

Let's face it, my favorite scrapping subjects are my children. The little buggers make this life a true adventure! Don't get me wrong, I began scrapbooking five years before First Born, and I have over a dozen of albums to show for those early scrapping endeavors. But when faced with the choices of scrapping the kids or the gargoyles of Notre Dame, kids 99 and gargoyles 1!

And once in a while, I get organized enough and print out a set of photos that pertain to one particular subject matter. In other words, the stars and planets align, and Monstrosity makes an appearance, and voila, It's My Turn is created! This is my favorite mini album yet, because it makes me laugh! You will too once you see some of the pictures! Details, instructions, and more pages will be forthcoming at Creative Mini Album.

Onto other news, the shameless self promotion again: check out my projects as the guest blogger for AdornIt!! *laugh*

Lastly, be on the lookout for a huge Purple Cows contest. Check out this clue on the Purple Cows blog! I am going to need your help to win a Purple Cows Design Team contest, and in turn you can win the consumer portion of the contest. The prize is as big as I've ever seen in the scrapping world. Stay tuned, I will post more information when I have it!

Slowly Coming Back to Life...

I wonder if I will ever stop coughing? I've always known that I am pathetic and weak when it comes to illness of any kind, this time was no exception. What a sad display of all-out woe-is-me'ness. I have little doubt that I caught the bug from the little ones who are all-in-one germ factory and transport. It could be that Fishy gave it to me, hacking and coughing for the last four weeks in the cube next to mine!

Sick as I was, Aubree was in town!!! After she taught her fancy schmancy Options classes, she spent the Friday with me! She said that she was not afraid of my plague, but if she goes down, I'm going to hear about it! We hit two Archivers and the Scrapbook Shop. We met up with Cheryl for dinner and wrapped up a fruitful scrappy shopping day. She also brought me the Calico goodies I had ordered, including Storybook stamps! YAY!

I also started up scrapping again, here is my take on the Scrappiest sketch 33. Pearl is on the DT and has been encouraging me to participate. This girl does love sketches, so it wasn't hard to try out the new Nook and Pantry line immediately. I do love and miss summer.

Also, let's not forget, I did a pictorial tutorial on creating a circle web with the new Martha Stewart web corner punch, check it out here. Here's a sneak peak of the project:

Finally, I am guest blogging for AdornIt this week!! YAY!!! Check it out on the AdornIt blog. Today is just the regular mugshot that I'm sure you are tired of seeing, but fun projects will follow tomorrow and beyond!

Fall No More

I feel a little bitter that we pretty much skipped over fall completely and entered into the winter season. The snow and the cold have already descended upon us with vengeance! Of course I am still trying to recover from my giant head cold. Oh the hacking is so unpleasantly disgusting. Here's to hoping not getting infected by the H1N1 virus, especially when I'm already busy battling this cold!

Of course there has been little to no production in the scrapping department, so I thought I would post the layout I did for Becky Fleck's PageMaps site. I don't think we will get to pick apple either this year, so so sad...

Funky Chicken

The first time DD performed the Let Me See Your Boogaloo song, I almost died laughing. I recorded the whole thing so we'll be enjoying the performance for years to come. My favorite line was definitely "funky chicken," because the way she said/says this particular phrase, simple too comical. I don't think the layout is all that special, it's one that firmly lands in the "documentation" category. This October Afternoon paper is just too perfect not to scrap this song.

By the way, if you see my nose, please tell it to stop running. Gosh, how much pain am I in with this ridiculous cold? Only the running knows! ugh...

Snow already...

This morning we woke up to half an inch of snow on the ground. The days of leisurely photographing my projects outside are gone! Poor quality photos await me for the next six months, sigh...

Now onto projects, here's a layout that I did for the Graphic 45's blog. This is actually the first time I've ever scrapped this particular photo. I use it as my Avatar almost everywhere. In fact, this was the photo I sent to Creating Keepsakes to be used in the October 2009 issue.

Funny story: I showed my dad the CK magazine and this photo converted to black and white. He looked at it and said "How come you look so chubby in this picture?" ROTFL! Believe me, he could have said MUCH worse, e.g., "How come you look so much chubbier than this photo?" That would have been REALLY bad. As it was, this photo was taken when Second Child was only 2 months old, so the chub is understandable. *grin* My dad's perceptiveness always amazes me! I mean obviously I think the difference is not noticeable enough to use this fat picture of me everywhere! LOL

And let's not forget the layout I did for Prism's blog, check it out here!! I was so stoked that I was able to use the "From My Kitchen" Cricut cartridge immediately after I opened it, on three layouts!! Here's a peak:

A Couple of CCG layouts

Since joining the Prism team, I've been using the Color Combos Galore challenges as a place to try out cardstock focused layouts. It is so natural to do. I get four colors, I find four closely matching cardstocks, and I go to work.

Yes, Great Wall pictures! I took probably several hundreds that day, but I've only scrapped 6 so far! Beijing is a bit overrated if you ask any Shanghai'nese, lol, but the Wall, whatever the hype, it lives up to it! Seriously! I go to the Forbidden City. I look around. I say, Emperor dude, this is no way for the royalty to live! Talk to Louis at Versailles and take some notes! LOL. But the Wall, the Wall, it's no wonder that it is a Wonder!


Here is the latest CCG challenge, colors chosen by yours truly! I recently received a RAK from Pamela Young, one of the Rusty Pickle chefs. I used the RP papers she sent me for this layout. I also used a sheet of Daisy D rubon on the dark green colored cardstock. I had never done that before, using a whole rubon to create my own custom background. It was liberating to let my stash go!! *laugh* Simple layout, eh? It'll do... it'll do...

I'll Love You, Dear

I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sings in the street.

I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky
...

Spurred on by Scrapbook Trends' March 2010 Call for "Favorite Quotes," I created this layout today with Studio Calico's Cotillion. W.H. Auden won my heart over with his glorious poem "As I Walked out One Evening" back in high school. I have continued to contemplate what it would look like to introduce China and Africa. In many ways, as the Chinese girl living in Africa, I had felt that indeed China and Africa had met in me. Then there was the vivid imagery of the ocean being folded and hung up to dry. Such mastery of words and imagination, how it moves me, how well it captures and catapults my own imagination as I visualized God hanging his laundry on the line :) Those were the days that I hung on to every delicious English word as I voraciously read through everything the little school library had to offer. Gone are those days, now I scrapbook with every spare millisecond... *LAUGH*

I'm still trying to get a layout that is 100% Studio Calico into Scrapbook Trends. I won't hold my breath of course, not having a lot of luck with Scrapbook Trends the last few months even though I admit to having gone to Archiver's twice to see the October 09 issue. I can't wait to get my contributor's copy!

Is this Papillion paper not just GORGEOUS? I think the colors are just out of this word vivid and audacious, matches well with how I feel about Auden's poem. I've asked Aubree to purchase SC exclusive papers add-on the last few months. I will so miss this arrangement that is coming to an end.

Yesterday was World Card Making Day, and the blogsphere was abuzz with all kinds of cardmaking news, challenges, giveaways, and activities. I did make a card to celebrate. It'll get posted on Prism's blog in November.

Ciao Summer! Hola Fall!

Today is a big day for me. I am officially a member of the "Friends of the PageMaps." Indeed, I have a double-page layout featured by Becky Fleck's PageMaps October newsletter. I am on cloud 9! When I finally mustered up the courage to send email to Becky to inquire about the possibility of being a contributor, I didn't think it would be a month later when I see my layout on her fabulous site! Wow, thank you so much Becky for the awesome opportunity.

There are many other happy news to share. Have you seen Christie Bryant, one of my fellow Graphic 45 Fashionistas, being featured on Creative Mini Albums?

Come and sign up for the Creative Mini Album Forum, a private forum where you can download detailed instructions on the mini-albums created by the design team. Click here for information on sign-up.

Speaking of mini-albums, I have a little one to share:

And indeed, more strawberry photos! I am pleased to say that I was one of the Finalists in the Maya Road Summer of Fun Recipe Card contest. As a result, this mini-album and instructions for this mini-album have been made into a recipe card available on Maya Road's website. More excitingly, my fellow CowGirl Samantha was the overall winner of the contest. Way to go SAM!