If Halloween Is Here, Can Winter Be Far Behind?

Is today really Halloween?  Well, I guess the kids will go trick-or-treating with the un-altered Macy's shopping bags again this year.  I can hear people, ahem Aubree, scold me for not spending a buck or two to pick up something Halloween-ey for the kids to carry.  I know the neighbors will affably laugh at their Macy's bags again.  No matter, I don't think the kids will care and this mother certainly does not! 

Last winter, I got my DSLR, so I have a lot of relatively decent winter photos.  However... I find it very difficult to scrap winter photos, even when they are relatively good.  I don't know... we get six months of winter every year, it's just depressing.  However, I did get up some courage a while ago and scrapped this page of Second Child walking in the snow in our yard. I used the Boy and Dog, Snow Adorable stamp from My Favorite Things.

Do you miss Collage Press? I do, terribly!  I hope they will come back.  I am here waiting...  Meanwhile, my CP stash is deep and wide.  After all, I did buy two of everything of their last collection: Joyride :)

It's almost time...  I'd better go dig out those Macy's shopping bags... 

A Color Room Layout for Scrap-Info

The Color Room artists were commissioned by the Russian scrapbook magazine Scrap-Info to create projects for their Fall issue.  Now that the issue is in print, we are showcasing the palettes used in the magazine at the Color Room.  I participated in this particular palette and I look forward to getting a copy of this issue to see myself in print in Russian :)  I am very proud that I got the colors very very close to the palette :) 

This layout was completed five months ago, I just wrote down a few facts about Second Child from back then.  It's amazing how quickly they grow and how quickly I forget. Thankfully, bits and pieces are captured thanks to scrapbooking :)

Dream a Little...

I entered this layout into the Fancy Pants Facebook challenge a few weeks ago.  I did not win, but I fancy myself quite happy with this layout.  Many thanks go to Aubree for most of the paper products on this layout.  She is not a fan of purple so I inherited a hodge podge of Fancy Pants papers that have purples in them from her including the overlays that I cut and pieced together on this project.

I so so so loved Fancy Pants' 12x12 chipboards when they came out with them five years ago. Those were seriously innovative products!  I wasn't enough of a scrapper to know how to use them all that well back then, but I feel like I did them justice recently.  So there is something to be said about hoarding.  I finally grew into some product :)

I thought about submitting this layout to the Helmar blog while I was their guest designer in September, but I just want to keep it to myself for a bit longer (though it's out there on Facebook, lol).  Speaking of Helmar, I have joined its new education team.  I am elated.  

I am grateful that this little one is in my life. She is growing up quickly and I would like to hold onto a few moments, captured in time, to remind me, just how wonderful life is and how much she adds to mine.

Thank you for visiting, so much!  I will be back on Thursday with a new TCR layout.  TTFN!

天下没有不散的宴席

The saddest thing about a vacation is that it has to come to an end.  It is good to be home, though there is no way we can keep it as clean as our room steward kept our stateroom!

A great time was had by all.  I gained weight, oy, 2.5 lbs, despite the fact I ran 5-7 miles a day!  I tell ya, 550 calories worked off have nothing on a bite of cheesecake!  LOL.

It'll be a while before I have any photos printed from the Caribbeans, how about I share another layout from the last vacation using the Midnight Rooster October kit? :)  Sometimes an aggravating situation can actually be a major blessing.  It would have been nice to have everyone smiling face photographed with the monument immortalizing the Greats of American Democracy, but as it was... hilarious... 

I stacked a bunch of cut out arrows from a glorious sheet from Studio Calico's Documentary collection.  And of course, just a simple MFT stamped gal "are we there yet" to make it look fabulous, at least I think so :)

That's it for now, time to get mentally prepared to return to the real real life: working 7-4 :)  ciao!!!

Lights, Camera, Travel!

When it comes to trends, I am currently and forever will be in love with all the motifs having to do with cameras, negatives, travel, maps etc.  I can think of several lines such as BoBunny's Mama razzi, Studio Calico's Documentary, Jillibean Soup's Pasta Fagioli, Basic Grey's Wander, etc.  

One day, I just thought to myself, I really want to get that negative look, is there something in my punch stash that could sort of do the trick?  So I went a-searching...   Lo and behold, what did I find but this EK Success punch?!  It's perfect for what I was hoping to get!  So here is a quick 3-step pictorial tutorial on how to get the negative strip look :)  Indeed, it does require this particular EK success punch and FTC can rest easy, I am just a happy customer who bought the punch with my own money :) 

Here is a layout using WIP's October kit where I incorporated my new found negative look, lol.  Coming up with this little idea is one of the reasons that I am in love with this layout. Fabulous, isn't it?  LOL.  Oh yes, I am mightily pleased with myself right about now :)

Garden Layouts, Published

Summer has ended and we had another wonderful year of fresh garden produces.  I am adding back to the blog two projects that were published in the last few months on the subject of gardening.

Meanwhile, I have a question for you.  Do you ever get tired of scrapping the "same old" subject?  I guess I'm wondering about that for myself.  Will this subject matter get old?  Will the journaling be stale?  Will the pictures be uninteresting?  Will the stories be repetitive?  I suppose I will find out right?  After all, these two layouts are from last year, and if you've read my blog for the last few months, gardening themed layouts are in abundance here :) and I'm not done with them yet this year! I guess it is my way of participating in my family's hobby besides eating the fruits and vegetables.  Perhaps next year, I document the gardeners  more?  Perhaps next year I will interview them and make them dictate the journaling :)  We will see...

Beans and Peapods published in Scrapbook & Cards Today summer 2010 issue. 

The second layout was published in Scrapbook Trends June 2010 issue.  Even though I'm not the gardener, looking at these pictures make me happy.  I just love summer. I love the fresh vegetables from our gardens.  Most of all, I love the gardeners behind these vegetables: my husband and my parents, not to mention the 'lil gardeners in training :)

Cruising Latitude

Hello everyone, (sip sip Margarita) it's Jing-Jing here! How you doin'? (apply apply sunscreen) Me... (chomp chomp seafood), peachy... currently looking for my sunglasses and getting ready to eat my fourth buffet of the day, (is it noon yet?)  Whoa, is my nose sunburned? 

Don't cry for me, scrapbook divas!  The truth is I never left you.  All through the cyberspace, my fabby cruising, I am here blogging, don't stop your reading!

Please forgive me in advance for not visiting your blogs this week.  It's 70 cents a minute to use the internet and that does not include the one-time registration fee!  I will just live "off-line" for a week then, oh the hardship! lol.

Typically it is not wise to "advertise" one's absence from one's abode, but in this case, the man of the house is prone to seasickness, so he opted to stay and guard the house for us :)  So we are safe there!

This is my first cruise and I'm churlishly giddy over it!  I may say that I'm prepared for the weight gain, but I will be very unhappy when I step on that scale once home! lol.  However, I'm not going to let that dampen my eating spirit, bring on the tandoori!!!

I thought that this Midnight Rooster layout is quite appropriate for this post.  After all, I wonder where she gets her silliness from? LOL. 

How about that Pure Innocence gal?  Have you noticed just how in love I'm with these My Favorite Things stamps?  I am now officially on MFT's Scraps and Arts team :)  From Pure Innocence to Pure Happiness :)

Pink Paislee Friday

First of all, the Midnight Rooster mini-kit winner is Andi (RrlScrapGal).  Please email mburry{at}midnightrooster{dot}net with your address, thank you!

At SRM Stickers, the design team members are featuring the latest collections by Pink Paislee.  I received the Hocus Pocus collection and here are the two projects I made with Pink Paislee and SRM Stickers.

First up is a tea tin turned into a treat tin.  Whoa... say that three times quickly, lol.  I will admit that this little tin has been sitting on a living room shelf, and my 3-year old has been pulling on the curly wired ribbons.  Every day I come home, another curl has straighted out, sigh...

Gosh, I wish I have curly hair like this, lol, it's so cute, no wonder Second Child wants to pull on it!

Luck will have it, the Color Room's Palette 28 looks remarkably close to the Hocus Pocus collection!  The black background and the bits of yellow are papers from Pink Paislee's Vintage Moon collection (2008).  I "exacto'ed" some spider webs strips for the yellow dots paper and added SRM stickers.  Halloween is coming up, here's to hoping she can wear this again this year too.  Have a great Friday and weekend!

Curio Butterfly Banner

I was a lucky recipient of the Basic Grey Curio collection via SRM Stickers. Curio is a gorgeous line of alluring patterns and regal colors. The botanical and aviary themes of this line are the inspiration points for my butterfly banner. I used SRM Stickers' Sticker Sentiments - Fall (51012) for this banner.

This banner took me an entire weekend completely ignoring the kids to finish. Then the really hard part began: photographing it!  Every day I get home from work, I rush to photograph it one way or another.  It took me seven days of hanging it at various places to get the following pictures.  At this point, I just hope the close-ups do some justice to the number of hours I spent, lol. 

I have a video of making a butterfly piece like this coming.  I hope I will get it done before Thursday.  Until then, have a great week!

October Midnight Rooster Give-away

Please click here for the SRM Stickers Halloween Blog Hop, but come back for the Midnight Rooster mini-kit giveaway!

It's almost time for the Midnight Rooster's October kit reveal. This means a layout and a mini-kit give-away time!  First up is a layout I did using the kit.  This is Second Child peeling an onion.  I have no earthly idea why she wanted to peel that thing, but I snapped a few photos :)

That flower comes as it is in the kit!  Midnight Rooster's handmade items are really out of this world!! 

I used a Pure Innocence set from My Favorite Things for the sentiment "You make my life sweet."  And check out that flower, and the custom pin on that flower.  I know you want them!!

Now here is what you can win by answering the question below.  Check out the content of the mini-kit first!!  Perhaps the winner and I can split this gorgeousness? LOL. 

Mini-kit content:
Paper:
Jillibean Soup - Egg Drop Soup, egg yolk
Pink Paislee - Imagine
American Crafts - Letterbox
American Crafts - Botanique
Embellishments:
Purple Onion Stamp
Maya Road - brown ric rac ribbon
American Crafts - Brown Alphabets
Milk Caps
Buttons
Chiffon Flower - handmade

To qualify for this giveaway on my blog, you have to answer this question from the Bozzlady of Midnight Rooster: "What is your favorite meal to make in the crockpot?" You must be willing to share your recipe because she's gonna want it!  lol.

That's it from me, have a great weekend!!

SRM Stickers Halloween Blog Hop

Welcome to the SRM Stickers Halloween Blog Hop! Please get started at the beginning: SRM Stickers.

There are always prizes involved in a blog hop right?  Please hop from one designer's blog to the next and do the following:

1. Become a follower of this blog.
2. Leave a comment, and hop onto the next blog.
3. Return to SRM Stickers to leave a comment that you have completed the Hop. 

You will have until the end of the weekend to complete the Hop. Winner(s) will be chosen to receive a SRM Prize Package, and the announcement will be made on Tuesday, October 12th.

For this blog hop, I have a Halloween layout using Best Creation's papers and SRM stickers.  Let's just say that it is my most sincere hope that this costume fits her this year too, lol!

My next layout is for the Color Room and obviously not of a Halloween theme, but I used SRM Stickers: Express Yourself: Outdoors as the journaling on the big tag. We are a bit of an outdoor-sy family, and SRM Stickers have some fantastic outdoor/explore stickers to suit my scrapbooking needs.  I hope you check them out and you will fall in love with these products like I have!

Thank you for stopping by, your next stop is Gina Hanson for more amazing projects!! 

WIP October Projects Part One

Recently we re-joined the YMCA after a 6-years break :)  More than anything, it was so that First Born can join the swim team as she has become quite the little swimmer over the summer.  While she practices with her team and doing her 1000 meters, we go to Group Exercise classes, like Zumba (thanks Deana) and Body Pump.  I honestly believe that I won't be able to move thanks to an hour of beating from the Body Pump class.  The most pathetic thing about it is that I'm using 1kg weights on my bar.  I can hardly type right now, my shoulders are so sore!!!

Here are a couple of layouts for the WIP October kit.  I quite love this EK Success punch I got that created the big scallop dot border.  I quite love all the circles on this layout.  All photos of Second Child were taken on her 3rd birthday.  I told her just yesterday that she's my baby girl, and she emphatically said "No, Mama, I am NOT a baby!"  She will always be my baby...  I finally understand that sentiment... 

Meanwhile, it's time to get started on my album for our road trip this summer.  So this page is for the cover of that imaginary album, lol.  I used a lot of SRM Stickers for this layout.  A photo of the Old Faithful would be even better, but I didn't bother to set up so we can get in the photos while the geyser is shooting up.  I wanted to watch it :)

Here are some close-up of the SRM Stickers I used.  All of them come from one sticker sheet: explore.  I will be using those a lot :)   That's about it for now, must go rest my not yet sore but extremely tired muscles...  thank you for visiting!