Playing with Dandelions

geek+scrapper radar = ...

2009-10-23T23:49:00.000-07:00

A girl can never have enough of everything... hahah. So I applied my geeky+scrapaholic radar the other day and found a whole load of scrumptious/scrapalicious goodies out there! Now, only if I have the money to purchase all of them...

In the meanwhile, I guess drooling is the only way out to satisfy my "hunger" for these. :D

Danielle Thompson's "Handle with care" label stickers for all these polaroid cameras. It totally didn't help at all that I have the EXACT same pink polaroid that is pictured in this above paragraph (too bad the film for it is already discontinued. :[ ) I bet it will look so darn cute!

Cosmo Cricket's "Girl Friday" fabric designs. I already love the designs on papers itself... and I think I will love them more even now that they're on fabric too! I really dig the mixed alpha design! :D

All these embellishments from evalicious are just too flippin' gorgeous! I bet they will look as cute as a button on some of your scrapbook pages. ;) I think I am gonna order some right now! There are also other gorgeous designs from evalicious. :)

I need either one of these journals from The Little Pink Studio desperately. :P They're just too flippin' cute and I would love to write something in them. The quotes on the cover of each journal are so meaningful as well. Also, not to mention that the colours look so gorgeous as well... *drools somemore*

These cameo silhouettes from Webster Pages are way too gorgeous. I am sucker for anything pretty and this just speaks to me! Can't wait for this to hit my LSS asap! :D They just look so vintagey-pretty. :)

I still desperately wish for the Aug'09 kit of LabelTulip.com... it's just so pretty but too bad I missed it. It was sold out by the time I checked on the site... curse the fact that I cancelled my subscription earlier on in Jan this year. :( If anybody still have this kit and wishes to sell it, do drop me a note! I will be happy to take the kit off your hands. :)

This whole gift wrap set from hooraydesignshop@etsy is gonna looks like it will be making packaging mails a whole load easier and prettier as well. It also looks like it can be easily altered into something delicious. :)

I hope you've been drooling over these goodies as much as I did! They're all awesome eyecandy! :D

On a sidenote, I haven't been having much luck with challenges/contests/pub calls these days, everything I submitted didn't seems to win anything... oh well, a girl can dream right?! Haha, but since I expected "failures" from entering these contests (especially with a horde of talented scrappers around), this doesn't come as a surprise anymore! Oh well, fingers crossed for whatever contests I am gonna take part in next time... :P

Sigh, I have about $587USD worth of scrapbook goodies in my cart over at TwoPeas. So tempted to check out but I know that I do not have the financial ability to afford them right now. :P Even with the $20 gift cert I won from a weekly challenge at TwoPeas sometime before... I need to start crackin' those lazy bones inside me and start working now. :)

Doesn't help that I've been spending a lot at all my local scrapbooking stores these days... I looked into my bank account and realized I have spent approximately $300SGD (it should be about $200USD when converted) on scrapbook goodies in these 2 months... oh well, I really need to start working on practising self-control next time and also resisting temptation... but those goodies are just screaming for me to look at 'em! :( Thanks god that I have friends who are sucker for scrapbook goodies like I do (or pretty stuff in general, haha), I am able to let go of some of my goodies (and earn some quick cash in return) when I start to purge some of my scrapbook stash (and also destash my room at the same time). Wow, that's like killing more than 2 birds with just one stone! :P

I am kinda sick of this look on my blog, and I might make some drastic changes to it soon... look out for it! :D Also on the "makeover" note, I am trying very hard to destash my scrapbook stuff and my room in general (yes, I am not as lucky as some of you out there who has a personal scrapbook room. I sleep where I scrap, lmao! :D), so you might want to look out for another giveaway soon. I need to get myself an inspiration board soon as well (saw a cute one recently at a houseware store... but a hefty price tag of $50 accompanied it.. so I am currently having second thoughts on them)... inspirations always come knocking on random timings but those thoughts always escape my mind. :(

Food... & breakfast.

2009-10-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

Supplies~
Cardstock: American Crafts
Alphas: American Crafts
Papers: American Crafts
Stickers: K&Company, 7 Gypsies
Ribbon: K.I. Memories
Flowers: Prima Marketing

[EDIT/23.10.2009: Details added now :D]

Okay I think I've to admit it. I am not perfect. I am a major photoshop nut. :D But not to the extent of mortifying myself on that program. I did tweak the layout above using Photoshop... and I might have went a wee bit too far with the brightness and contrast tools... which explains why my doily lace (guess what I got it from - improvise, people, I got it from a local diner... they must be thinking what was a teenage girl doing/thinking by asking for something like... doily lace. That is one big syndrome of being a scrapaholic) look so vague compared to the rest of the page.

Other than that, I also added typed journalling to the page on Photoshop. Then I printed the extra copy out and snuck it on the backside of the layout protector that lies inside my scrapbook album. :D I wanted to try printing on the cardstock itself but given my clumsy nature, I will mess it up for sure, and therefore, I didn't attempt doing so, heh. :D

Well, technique-wise, I played on major tone-on-tone (white on white in this case) in this layout! I think the effect that came out was pretty cool! :D

Now on to the journaling.. it says:

{Sometimes all we have to do is to just sit back and enjoy the first meal of the day heartily and happily... too bad I always miss out on them. I need to learn to be more appreciative in the future and start to enjoy the meals!}

Well, to be honest, when I was 5... I was a chubby lil' kid because of my large appetite. Chocolates were my preferred choice of food, as with every other young kiddo. :P I even have some photos to prove the above fact! But, when I was reaching 6/7, I don't know why, but my appetite took a major downturn. I hated eating. I had a sudden disgust and distaste for all food around me. Even all the chocolates that I loved before got affected as well. The sight and thought of food and them going down my gullet/oesophagus just disgusted me. I felt like I could puke anytime and everytime food enters my mouth.

It disgusted me to the state that sometimes I could just survive on a spoonful of rice/noodles for a day (and of course, water). If they tried to force-fed me, I will just breakdown or break out into tears. At least, that's what my parents whined to me about. Well, of course, my parents were dead worried about whatever that had happened to me and brought me to see a doctor to get a proper diagnosis, but the doctor said I had some kind of psychological barrier that hindered me from eating and subduing my appetite (Honestly, I had no idea what I did or heard when I was 5... so don't ask me about the details either :P I tried to ask my parents but they couldn't remember either)

But I still remembered clearly that during those times, I really hated food. Nobody truly understood why I was reacting that way towards food all of a sudden. Actually, I didn't know it myself either. No matter how my parents tried to force-fed me, I just can't eat much. That whole condition lasted for a whole month (though it got better gradually by the day), until my appetite was back to that of a normal person, to say the least.

Now that I think of it, could I have gotten anorexia when I was 6? That still remains a question, and a mystery, but definitely not one that I am desperate to solve. Just let bygones be bygones. At least those days are over now... or else all the troubles I could have caused to people around me would be distratrous if that continued till today.

Luckily, my appetite was restored. But I don't know whether it was due to me growing up or something, sometimes skipping meals doesn't come as a surprise to me anymore. I could survive easily without eating a meal (but I will still eat whenever I have to) for the day, such as breakfast, or lunch. (I am forced to come back home everyday on time to have my dinner though, I guess my mom wouldn't wish to see her daughter turn from a human being to being a virtual skeleton)

Because of the fact that I practically have to rush to school every single day, I often skip breakfast. Of course, as a biology student (albeit not a good one :P), I am highly aware that it isn't a recommended option, because several fatal stomach/gastric conditions can occur out of this habit of mine.

But sometimes, life just get in the way isn't it? I am not exactly an expert at time management either. Well, at least now I am trying to get rid of this bad habit of mine and learn to have proper meals/diets for the whole day... instead of relying just what is required.

Breakfast is extremely important. They give you the necessary boost of energy to assist you in whatever that comes in your way for the rest of the day. That probably explains for my restlessness in all of the days that I didn't take my breakfast. :D

On a sidenote, I am a huge fan of MacDonalds' Hotcakes breakfast meal. It's just simply divine when matched with maple syrup. Can you tell I have a sweet tooth yet? :P

Also submittted this layout for a challenge on American Crafts! Hopefully that gives me a chance to win some of the new Letterbox *AC's newest line that is just way too gorgeousssss* goodies.

Trust me, nobody would ever resists those pretty thickers...

(And it comes in my favorite texture ever - Fabric! :D)

I call myself a major thicker fan. I think I still have at least 10 packs of them left unused... don't even get me started on those that have been used! :P

Just dropping by!

2009-10-10T23:26:00.000-07:00

I am aware that I practically left my blog to isolation.... haven't been updating much, haven't I? it has been a month since I last updated and I sincerely apologize for the lack of updates on my blog, just that my scrapping activity isn't as active as before, which explains for the lack of scrap content to see on this blog. :(

Life has been taking a toll on me and I promise to be back soon with a whole load of photos (together with plenty of stories to share... :D) and hopefully my blogging as well as scrapping frequency will be back to normal as soon as possible. For those who're curious about the previous blog post or already knew about what I posted, rest assured that I have got over it.... in fact, really easily. Like just within 1 day of writing that blog post.

That said, when people say that words are a good form of relieving your stress, they ain't kidding. It's a no-brainer as to why so many people are turning to blogging as their source of platform to relieve their stress off.

That said, I shall leave you guys with a little inspiring quote I spotted:

"Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action."
- Benjamin Disraeli

I am most certainly working on that. :D

Losing it...

2009-09-11T23:48:00.001-07:00

Some things are better left private. ;)

If you've already read this post earlier... thank you for reading.
If you haven't... perhaps its best that you don't read it. :P

Giveaway winner(s) hereeee!

2009-08-29T20:39:00.000-07:00

Okay... :) Time for the announcement for the giveaway winner(s)! :) Yes you saw that right! More than one winner because I am ~~generous like that~~, okay just kidding. :P But yes, there is more than one winner!

First up, I shall announce the winner for the $25 gift cert to be used on Twopeas!

IS..... NO. 32!

which means... you, ANN! (it was really easy to count the 32nd comment from 35 comments, lol!)

Ann said...
Cool prize down here! :) Hope you win the Prima contest!

Congratulations Ann! Please get in touch with me at ohmyshermin[NOSPAM]@hotmail.com to receive your spankin' $25 gift cert. :)

Well, I felt bad and also tried to generate a few more numbers to each receive a $5 gift cert at TwoPeasinabucket.com from me. :) So I generated 2 more numbers and guess who gets the treat? :)

28, and 12, COME ON UP!

Which means...

*Monica* said...
Wow, what an awesome giveaway! And so generous of you.
Happy 1000 posts!

&

Brittney said...

Wow, what a great prize. Who doesn't love shopping?! Congrats on the 1000 posts (and here's to another 1000!).

gets the additional $5 gift certificate over at Twopeas as well! I hope it's not too shabby! :D
Similiarly, email me at ohmyshermin[NOSPAM]@hotmail.com so that I can "send" over your prize virtually as soon as possible!

(I still think my email address is very cool. I am a geek. Whatever. :D)

That's all for now! All giveaway winners, please email me as soon as possible to claim your prize! Thank you so much for all the kind wishes, votes, etc, etc! I will be off to check out the blogs of all those who commented and leave some sweet messages as soon as possible...

and yes, to another 1000th post! Working on it. ;)
Yes, am I fast or what? Just 15 minutes after the end of the giveaway and I already announced the winners. :D

My tribute back to the peas; kidding. ;) GIVEAWAY POST

2009-08-29T01:43:00.000-07:00

**** Boring nostalgic moment ******
(skip it if you find this kinda stuff boring :P but it's not too long anyway so hang in there!)

I've been scrapbooking since late 2007; honestly, I haven't really stopped, but I've breaks in between. I am a major geek, a really really really major one. I am practically glued to the computer 24/7 (though it seems like I've not been active in anything regarding scrapping online)... so its no surprise that the moment I discovered scrapbooking, I discovered TwoPeas too.

I dare not say that I've been a really active Pea.

Sometimes life just get in the way, and you can't expect me to post something on the Peas boards/gallery every single day... and yes it took me quite a bit of time to climb to the almighty 1000th post as a proud Pea, as each user on the message board is affectionately known as. Yes, I have reached the much coveted (okay, not really :P) 1000th post in one and a half year. I definitely wish for more to come. :) - Well, at least I am working on it right now!

I've gotten into small dramas in there before, I am sure every hobby has its fair share of dramas. but it's alright, the pros surely outnumbered the cons. I discovered some friends, as well as some amazing talents/inspirations on 2Peas, and thus, it's payback. :)

******End of boring nostalgic moment********
Yay, now congratulations to you for getting this far! :D

The giveaway....

I pretty much figured that since I live in Singapore, and if I want to send some yummylicious products overseas, the international shipping would probably have killed me; or the shipping costs would have outweight the costs of the goodies itself. That's not good, of course. :P

So, I shall display my inner geek instincts! :D

Instead of me choosing the products, why don't you choose it instead? Sounds good, no? :) And since I am trying to pay it back to the fellow peas who has brought me joy and inspiration in the midst of this hobby, why don't I just pay it back to the community? After much consideration on what I should put on as a giveaway... I finally realized the perfect solution.

A $25 gift certificate for you to shop at TwoPeas!
(Of course I would want to make the value of the gift certificate higher, but pardon me, I am just a struggling student/aspiring web designer who makes money online by designing websites for others - I am guessing I am pretty much an artistically inclined person :D $25 is probably the only spare cash I could afford at the moment - afterall, I already spent most of them away on buying products on Twopeas, yes, I am very guilty!)

So, you wanna ask how you could win that awesome, spankin' $25 gift cert huh? :) Well, let me tell you how... of course there's a few catch here and there, but trust me, nothing major/taxing going on!

To get a chance to win, you just have to do the following things:

- For one chance, you just have to leave a comment on this post.

- For two chances, you just have to blog about this giveaway on your blog and then leave yet another comment to tell me you've already linked me up. :) or be a follower of my blog, and leave a comment yet again so that I can include you in this giveaway (I might miss you if you didn't comment!).

- For three chances, do the above two, then vote for my entry (#4292) over at Prima's Summer Teen Contest 2009, (voting information can be found right there - deadline is on 28th August so you might want to vote fast in case you lose the opportunity to throw in another chance for the giveaway!) and then leave me another comment here yet again telling me that you've already voted for my entry! If you could leave a comment on the original blog post at prima as well!

- For four chances to win, do the above 3 and additionally, spread the word around on other boards as well, if you can! Do remember to leave a comment yet again, leaving me an URL to go check out what you wrote! :)

This giveaway will end on 30th August 2009, and the winner will be announced on this blog on the 31st! The winner will be selected through a random number generator!

This is my first time doing a giveaway and I hope it's not too shabby, of course, I would love to drop you guys some more love when I hit my 2000th post... 5000th post.... 10,000th post.... so on and so forth! :D But I am pretty sure that will be a long way ahead so this should do for now!

Good news! :D (edited with picture+more information :D)

2009-08-28T09:01:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to drop a note here that I'm one of the top 10 finalists on Prima's teen contest! *screams in excitement* I'm really really honoured to be selected as one of the finalists, and would really appreciate any votes coming through to vote for me as the eventual winner. :)

If you've missed my previous blog posts, this is the layout that I submitted for Prima:

Entry #4292: All About Me:

Supplies List:
Patterned Papers: Creative Imaginations, Prima Marketing (photo frame)
Flowers: Prima Marketing's Trellis flowers in pink and white (awesome shades)
Embellishments: October Afternoon, Prima Marketing (Donna Downey's "love" canvas tag, paper rose made from Flirty little secrets patterned paper, rose rubon cut into half for use on the photograph and frame)
Alphas: American Crafts
Border/Others: Prima Marketing's Sew Cute stitched mulberry paper.

Journaling reads (It became too small when I resized it) :
"All about me: 15, a little meek, a little emotional and a wee bit too sensitive sometimes... but absolutely loved <3"

Please vote for me if you've the time! More information regarding voting can be found here! (You can also view the other amazing entries as well at the same time!) My entry no. is #4292 if you're wondering! Please feel free to vote for other deserving entries as well if my layout is not your desired choice! :D

More information on my layout can be found on a previous post on this blog!

Please do check my layout out and vote for me if you can/wish! Thank you so much and I really appreciate your effort in voting for me! :)

(This post is gonna stay up here until 28th August before I delete it! Updates should continue as usual! Please scroll below for my updates!)

xx Shermin :)

Prima's product picks :)

2009-08-21T20:44:00.000-07:00

I've always been a HUGE Prima fan (as if it already wasn't enough)! I mean, seriously, tell me who can resists those beautiful products Prima comes out with each time...? This season's release is ESPECIALLY tempting to me. :D

Prima has now came up with something really, really fun. :) They chosen some of their favorite products and put them into an ensemble (whereby the colors, and everything matched perfectly well!) so that fellow scrappers like us who're bad at matching products can now have a match to witness how Prima products come together! :D

Look at the perfect combination they've put out this time:

(That's not all of their new releases, of course!) :P

Prima Product Picks Include:

Fleur Danseur: These vintage flowers are absolutely stunning with the gem centers!

Pebbles: Patterned pebbles are perfect for a flower center or as an embellishment on your project.

Say It In Pearls Butterfly Swirl: These are totally feminine and precious! These swirls can be applied to almost ANY medium!

Holiday Lights Pearl Vine: Lovely vines filled with peach-colored pearl beads.

Gypsy Petals: Layers of yummy fabric with lightly singed edges and a gorgeous center.

Fleur Danseur:Sweet flowers made with fancy fabrics and complete centers.

Baroque Blooms: like large flowers? These are perfect for a fab focal point or an altered project!

Say It In Pearls: These centers will add class and elegance to any project!

Romani Flowers: These gorgeous flowers include a combination of beautiful fabric and pearls!

Trellis Roses: Sweet roses that look freshly picked!

Felt Stems: Just add flowers for a fabulous look!

Are you drooling yet, I am? :) And do you REALLY REALLY want a chance to win some equally yummy products from Prima? Then hop over to the Prima's blog here! You just have to post something about their product's picks and include that in your blog, and bravo, you get a chance to win! Doesn't that sounds awesome? In the meantime, I really cannot wait for some of these products to hit stores!

I hate to be biased... but Fleur Danseur, Say it in Pearls, Holiday Vines, Gypsy Petals, Romani Flowers gotta be my favorites! They're literally calling my name! (I would add Trellis Roses to the list, but I already bought it - and guess what? I already used up practically all of them and even bought another packet in the coral shade!)

I would love to make a project with these goodies someday though... so as soon as it hits stores... better watch out! :D

Oh, and since we're on the topic of Prima, don't you want to tap onto more of Prima's awesomeness by helping me, and vote for my layout (Entry #4292) over here @ the teen scrapper contest as well? Voting details can be found right there! It's really simple, you just have to email your vote over! :D Voting ends on 28th August 2009, which basically means that there's only about a week left for you guys to vote... so please take the chance to help me! Thank you so much! xx

Enjoy life... or not?

2009-08-17T09:01:00.000-07:00

It's one of those days, that I've emotional moments.
Things aren't going smooth, even the creations I made turn out to look like... uh, dare I say it, CRAP. I've never been that harsh on myself, although I've been said to be my own worst critic.

Supplies:
Easel - Spotlight
Canvas - Spotlight
Patterned Papers - Creative Imaginations
Paint - Sakura
Chipboard - Cosmo Cricket
Dimensional stickers - Making Memories
Ticket - Jenni Bowlin

I've been 'paid' by my friend to do this for her sister's birthday, (by paid, I mean she buys all the products and I get to keep all the leftovers, which is a good deal if you ask me) but I felt like I've ruined it.

She paid a lot for all the products and I don't want her to receive something substandard-ish. At the same time, I can't get myself to do things right. Morever, her sister's birthday is just on the 19th, which is a hard deadline to compete with.

It's my first time working with canvas and all, so I'm unfamiliar with it. I already painted on the canvas so I can't really reverse it, unless how you can adhere paper temporarily with temporary adhesive. Everything doesn't come together, even the original pony chipboard she bought was ruined by me. I feel like refunding her the money and everything for the products I've wasted but at the same time, she's looking for something handmade and not premade for her sister.

It is a hard decision, to keep or not to keep?

Meanwhile, please continue to support me at Prima Teen Comp (entry #4292). It's probably one of the only thing that keeps me going. Would love to hear comments on voting, I will check out your blog and leave some sweet messages too. xx :)

Under my camera, mera, mera, ra ra ra ra.

2009-08-14T23:09:00.000-07:00

Pardon me for my lame title. I am pretty sure that came from a puny brain that is too tired from studying right now haha.

I am supposed to be studying for my Biology examinations on Monday... but honestly, not in the mood. I am more into the 'scrapping mood' right now. :) It's so ironic that I spent so little time during the holidays to scrap when I've so much time to spend on leisure activities such as scrapping, but right now, I've so many commitments but yet I feel so like scrapping.

I am pretty sure scrapbooking is a good platform for me to relieve my stress and take my mind away from commitments that doesn't seem all too appealing.

I am in the midst of creating some layouts and hopefully, I will be able to finish them and upload them soon, I am a pretty slow scrapper as well as photographer. :) Not to mention, Petrina and her sister, Valerie aren't exactly my kids so... they only drop by peroidically and I only have these few photos of them, and I am pretty sure people don't want to see my face slapped onto every single layout I create... I am pretty much camera-shy too... at least to a certain extent! The rest of my family are very camera-shy too... so I am one of those few people that has way too many supplies, but way too little photos to scrap of :P Ironic huh? :D

Okay, anyhowdy, since we are on the topics of cameras... :) My parents are about to get me a DSLR for my birthday present... yes, after 2 years of begging but there has to be a catch for it.. such as cost and everything... and they also want to make sure I don't abandon my studies after getting the camera to play with!

I am pretty much interested in the Nikon D90, or the Canon Rebel 400D. I can't choose! Both are expensive (well its a DSLR, what can I expect? LOL!) so I am stuck in a rut. My parents haven't exactly got me a birthday present since I was about 11/12 and all I have gotten since are birthday cakes and nothing else. The point is I didn't want anything, haha, not that they didn't want to get me anything, I wanted a laptop but they deemed it as being too expensive and I already have a perfectly working desktop... so its alright. ;D

So now, they're "repaying" me back all the birthday presents they owed me in one go - through a DSLR. I could choose between DSLR and laptop but I figured a DSLR would be a better investment... I could get a laptop when I advance to junior college (in Singapore) next year anyway, since a laptop is definitely needed for school work. So yes, DSLR seemed like a better investment afterall! Haha. ;)

Oh, on the competition note, I am also glad to befriend another fellow teen scrapper through the Prima Teen Comp too! Her name is Kayla and she has a blog called My Creative Nerve! Her creations are really lovely and she's really talented for her age as well. She also have an equally lovely personality and we exchanged a few emails... and dare I say, each email had definitely exceeded 100 words... that's how much we can talk to each other. She is also the owner of a fun challenge site called Scrap the Girls... the challenge this month is really easy and the prizes are really yummy.. like gift certificates to some scrapping stores! Do check her out. :)

That's all for now, hopefully I will be back to share a few more layouts soon! Hopefully there will be less of these kinda picture-less posts because I can't stand wordy posts like these too! Oh and another shameless plug hehe. :) Please continue voting for me at the Prima Teen Comp okay? :)

Those eyes speak!

2009-08-13T02:05:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to drop by... even though I am supposed to study for my test for tomorrow right now, but I am sure it couldn't hurt to update my blog while I take a small little break! :D I just created something new the other day right after I finished my Prima's teen project (and yes, I am so honoured to be selected as one of the top 10 finalists! If it isn't too much trouble, please vote for my layout... more information can be found on the blogpost right at the top of my blog as well as this link!)I had some leftovers from the products I bought and decided to make use of them. :)

A relatively simple layout that doesn't make use of a lot of products...

Those eyes speak...

Supplies:
Patterned Papers: Prima Marketing (yes, I bought 2 of the same 'sew cute' paper... I guess I couldn't resist it afterall!), Basic Grey
Rub-ons: October afternoon
Alphas: American Crafts
Font: Times New Roman, Brockscript (For journaling purposes)

(Journaling reads: "These eyes are the most gorgeous pair that I've ever seen. They just speak for your jovial and innocent personality")

I initially started off with the idea of a 'storybook-structure', for this layout but alas, another failed attempt. I love the colors of this layout... but just can't pinpoint what seems 'wrong'. I keep feeling that there's something lacking about the above layout. :(

Alright, back to the study train now, choo-choo!

Just before I go, could you spare a vote for me? :) Here here! So sorry for the shameless plug!

Live, Laugh, Love

2009-08-09T07:23:00.000-07:00

How nice it would be if I can "live, laugh, love" everyday. Although I know its virtually impossible, I will still try my best to make it happen.

That aside, on the aesthetic aspect, I just changed my blog background and header. Background courtesy of http://hotbliggityblog.com and well, I just made the blog header myself. Not that well-done since I wasn't feeling inspired.

Same goes for this card. I wasn't feeling exactly inspired and just rushed through one piece because my friend's birthday is just tomorrow. That's what you get for rushed work! It is also one of my first card-making experience and I used scraps to complete it, so yeah. :) As if it wasn't obvious enough, I really really loved the ribbon. The quote is so typical yet so meaningful. :)

Supplies:
Patterned papers: Pink Paislee, SEI
Ribbon: Ki Memories
Ribbon holder: Making Memories

(Photo wasn't well-taken because of rainy weather and dark clouds. Normally I would wait for better weather conditions before taking a photo, but not that much of a choice here because I have to send the card over to my friend by tomorrow, haha!)

I definitely hope that she will embrace the signifance behind this card. :)
Now I can't wait for my own birthday, lol! It's 24th September if anybody wish to know, *hinthint*

Please leave comments whenever you can! I will be sure to check out your blog back and leave some comments as well. :)

Almost a month

2009-07-31T19:54:00.000-07:00

It has almost been a month since I've last updated this little small space of mine.

To sum it all up, the reason for me disappearing from the blogscene is because of life in general. Which of course inclues studies (the perpetual no.1 sorrow of mine on earth), as well as family, so on and so forth.

Anyhowdy, does anybody remembers the Prima teen contest that I talked about approximately 2 months ago? I finally got started on my entry on the 26th July. haha. I only submitted it on 30th July because I was frustrated of getting the 'right' photograph suitable to enter into the contest. Because of the dimensions of the Prima flowers, it became so hard to scan in the layout without it looking grainy or blur... so my only alternative is to photograph it.

I don't know whether my entry would be accepted because I don't know what constitutes as submitting it before July 31st (the deadline).... apparently, you have to wait for the Prima staff to verify your submission before it shows on the contest gallery. By the time that happens, I am not sure whether it would still be under the deadline of 31st July, because as you can see now, its already 1st August, and its still not appearing in the contest gallery....

Yeah I am a very impatient person. :(

Photographing it was a tough process. I had to wait for the suitable light setting and then capture it. Many times, I had blur edges, excessive amount of graininess/noise which irritated me to no end.

This is one of the decent shots. I tried to use as many Prima products as possible, but eventually the alpha, patterned paper and one rub on isn't from Prima. But basically everything else is from Prima. :)

One of the few layouts that I journalled! Feel so proud of myself right now, haha:

Hopefully that constitutes as 70% worth of Prima products. :D The journaling really sums up who I am right now. As with every other teen, I have my emotional and sensitive moments. Also a little bit shy sometimes, but I do know, for sure that I have an awesome bunch of family and friends that I can count on, who love me for who I am. :D

That's all for now.
I am loving CHA at the moment... but I don't really buy festive lines (I normally just buy generic lines for obvious purposes) as some festivals are exclusively celebrated in America (or even if not, celebrated in certain countries only). Christmas, and Halloween are not as elaborately celebrated here in Singapore as compared to America, particularly Halloween. :(

This time round, a whole load of manufacturers had came up with festive lines, I can even think of a few on top of my head, Making Memories, Cosmo Cricket, Basic Grey, Crate Paper, SEI, Webster Pages, October Afternoon, etc all released either Halloween or Christmas lines... but good thing is, they also released some other generic lines, so I am good for now.

At least this meant that I don't have to splurge oh-so-heavily like before! That is a good thing, right? :D I saw so many online eye candies lately that I want to grab, but really, some are really not affordable at the moment. I already quit all my kit clubs cause my scrapping frequency dropped a lot... blame homework, not me. :D

Can't wait for Prima to update their blog with the top 10 finalists! Can't wait to see who got selected, and hopefully, I am included, lol! :D I already saw a few stunning entries in the contest gallery so Prima might have a tough choice to choose from, huh? :D

Has been long...

2009-07-04T12:05:00.000-07:00

It sure has been long since I've last posted.

Vacations is now over and its now time to head back to school, ouch. :( I seriously can't bear with the days where I can spend my time lazing around and being a nocturnal creature. Now my biological clock isn't really working well, but I sure hope it's adjusting well to the new timing. :)

Had a few layouts done during the school vacations, and glad to say, one of them have won the Garden Girls weekly challenge over at TwoPeas sometime ago, only managed to check back now, but I am definitely glad to win (and of course, the shopping credit sure did grab me some good deals!) :)

It was the manicure one, if anybody remembers haha. :)
Just did another layout, it was meant for a challenge at my LSS, but I didn't win anyway, though it's alright as I had fun creating that layout. :)

Here to share if anybody's interested:

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics
Patterned Papers: Cosmo Cricket
Chipboard: Maya Road, Sassafras Lass
Tags: Tim Holtz (Ranger Industries)
Rub-ons: Rhoanna Farrer (Autumn Leaves)

I will be back to share some new projects when I am done recharging myself for the new school term, its so exciting, and just a little hint, it can be applied in real-life. Oh oh, CHA is coming soon, and I can't wait to see what the manufacturers come up with this season, oh man, that's gonna be digging a big hole in my pocket for sure. CHA always have this underlaying effect, heh! :)

Nostalgic - the final installment (LOL!)

2009-06-24T01:59:00.000-07:00

This still remains one of my favorite layouts despite it looking kinda amateur-looking(ish). Well, I was an amateur and this was the art of an amateur... so what can you expect? Ah, the first time I actually attempted serious stitching on papers!

I still fondly remembered that when I was 7 years old, I tried to make a Mothers' Day card for my mom, and I tried to stitch a heart on the construction paper (Yeah, I totally didn't know about the existence of scrapbooking supplies almost a decade ago!) and well, it was not that well-done... my mom even let out a comment that it looked more like a twisted oval instead of a heart when I tried to explain to her. Oh well!

Supplies:
Alphas: American Crafts, Making Memories
Patterned Papers: Basic Grey
Cardstock stickers: Basic Grey
Adhesives: Pop dots
Embroidery floss: Brandless (got it from my mom's sewing kit, ah-ha!)

So the stitching is still not that well-done here, but hey, given this is the first serious attempt I had tried stitching on paper, surely I deserve a pat on the back? Haha!, well, okay, the handmade claydolls in the layout is lovingly made by a best friend for me. She is really skilled in the arts of making these claydolls, which are oh-so-adorable. I used the Basic Grey "Sugared" collection because well, it's really sweet!

That's all for now. I don't think I can find any more old layouts to share. Btw, this layout is circa June 2008. So yeah, actually, till now, I am actually quite fond of this layout. :)

I will be back later to post some exciting news! (Well, exciting to me, at least... because it's my first time! Shhh.. you will hear back later! :D)

Oh and good news is, my mojo is finally returning. Working on some new creations right now! Can't wait to show you guys when I am done with them. The bad news is, I only have 5 days left till my vacation is over. :( Apparently, the government here refused to give us an extension of holidays despite the H1N1 virus spreading, albeit slowly. Yeah, I am getting kinda nutty over it. :P I mean, seriously, don't you want some extra days to just sit down on the couch/or computer chair for the matter of fact and do nothing?

Mojoless

2009-06-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

A layout I did on a mojo-less day, approximately 10 days ago if I still remember correctly. You can't expect much, can you? Virtually made out of patterned papers, with minimal embellishments. Well, I am a big PP fan...

Didn't scan this in, captured this on my point and shoot with minimal editing to the contrast and everything... blah.

Supplies:
Patterned Papers: October Afternoon, Jenni Bowlin, Cosmo Cricket
Rub ons: Autumn Leaves (by Rhoanna Farrer)
Chipboard: Scenic Route
Ticket: Jenni Bowlin

On a bright note, it's 3 more months to my birthday, yay!

Nostalgia ~ a trip down the memory lane part 2!

2009-06-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the fact that I've to interrupt my series of nostalgic posts on my old layouts which I have yet to show yet yesterday due to showing off a rushed-out layout, well uh, okay... taking a trip down my flickr pretty much does provokes a lot of memories!

As I skimmed through my flickr's photostream, unevitably, this layout below catches my eye, for a few reasons of course!:

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics
Patterned Papers: Making Memories
Cardstock Stickers: Basic Grey
Alphas: American Crafts

This was the layout that I manipulated/experimented with new techniques, scrapbooking styles. This layout, was inspired by Kerry Lynn :) She posted a layout of her daughter whereby she printed her daughter's picture on a kraft cardstock. Everybody should try this new technique, its so much fun, especially for people like me who has just ran out of photo papers, haha! As I'm not that skilled in the arts of restocking supplies (just take a look at my previous post as to how I finished up my white cardstock stack too!), just on the day I was doing up this layout, I ran out of photo paper (fret not, I've stocked up on this essential now!)

I did the same and printed my cousin, Petrina's picture onto kraft cardstock as well. :) It was also the first time I scrapped something the size of 6"x12". The process was refreshing yet slightly restrictive due to the small size at the same time, but overall, it was a good experience!

I tried to use minimal number of embellishments too, actually, most of them were just cardstock stickers from a pack of Basic Grey's collections. So yeah, you can consider it a failed attempt!

It's not one of my best layouts, of course, but at least, its one of my most unique one. :) By the way, while my scrapping mojo is taking itself out on a major vacation, at least the blogging mojo is back now to retrieve his throne. Hopefully I will continue blogging in a regular manner/timeframe now, haha!

Btw, yes, I submitted the layout below for the stacking titles challenge over at TwoPeas. Weird that it wouldn't show up on the challenge page even though I did tick it to post it for challenges though. Ah well, I am so sure I wouldn't win anyway, so why fret, heh!

Manicure!

2009-06-17T11:28:00.001-07:00

Back to show a layout, I am on a blogging spree, wheeeee!

Supplies:
Alphas - Creative Imaginations
Stickers - American Crafts, Jenni Bowlin
Chipboard - Pink Paislee
Rub-ons - Autumn Leaves (Rhonna Farrer)
Journalling page - Making Memories
Mist - Glimmer Mist

I did this one real quick.
Really, within a span of 5 minutes, but yeah, I think you can see its rushed in this layout. All I did was to use the negative chipboard shape of my Pink Paislee topsiders and mist it. Add some of the shapes on, together with a few embellishments and then I called it a wrap. It's really trashy though...

I also only took the photo of the layout over the iPhone as my digital camera is not with me at the moment, le sigh. :( I have officially lost my mojo-ness, to the state that I can only churn out works of this quality. I am lamenting at that, realllll badly. :(

I'm also on my laptop right now, which means no photoshop, bleh. :( I always use photoshop to 'beautify' my photoraphs of the layouts because brightness, contrast, exposure, really do make a difference in presenting the layout!

I might replace the photograph with a newly scanned in tomorrow, I don't know, I just feel like sharing this one right now. Well yeah, weird lil' me I guess! :D

Mr/Mrs/Miss Mojo, pleaseee come backkk toooo meee sooon. :(
Btw, I was thinking of entering this for TwoPeas' weekly challenge of stacking the titles.But of course, I am having second thoughts about it for obvious reasons! :D

Edit [@ 3.54pm]: I just uploaded a new photograpph/scan of the layout, and hopefully, it looks more appealing now. There's a lot of 'bubbling' because I didn't use 'authentic' white cardstock. I just used the white side of a single-sided PP to do this... well, improvise when you've got nothing!

Maybe I can submit this for the TwoPeas challenge now, *laughs*:D

Nostalgia ~ down the memory lane - part 1

2009-06-17T03:16:00.000-07:00

Does anybody wants to see my first SB Layout? It's so yucky that even I want to puke on it, but if I were to puke on it, it would be my mother's face I am puking on, so it wouldn't be that nice! Sorry mom, the above was just a joke! Haha. :)

Supplies:
Alpha - American Crafts
Patterned Papers - Basic Grey
Cardstock Stickers - Basic Grey
Crystals - Prima Marketing

This is a not-so-proud work of 2007/2008 *I can't remember when exactly it was*. Go ahead, laugh at it! I am sure all of our first layouts will look nothing like what we're working on right now... haha. But it was an awesome photograph of my mum putting on the final touches on her evening gown (my cousin was getting married on that night!) and you know, it's kinda rare at times that your mum looks fashionable, and therefore, it's a "document-able" subject. (Yes, I am aware there isn't a word like that!" haha. "Chic" was the adjective to describe my mother at that very moment. :)

Aw, how many of your first layouts was inspired by your mother?! Tell me, I am sure the figures is going to grow more inclined towards none!

I've more layouts from the past that I've yet to share yet, but I am working on scanning them in one by one and share with all of you guys. :) Just promise not to laugh, kay? :) Afterall, I was a beginner back then, and actually, still a beginner now. ;)

New blog layout

2009-06-15T08:40:00.000-07:00

Yayyyy, I put on a new blog layout. :)
It's very different from before, I feel this one gives off a rusty, vintage kinda feel, but in a good way of course. :) Also added some graphics/blinkies over at the sidebar. :) All of them (layout & graphics) are from shabbyblogs.com, they really do offer some spankin' layout!

Thanks and do let me know how you feel about the blog's appearance now. :) I hope to maintain it and update as much as possible of course, but sometimes life just get caught up in the middle of nothingness

Something that looks like a bumblebee.

2009-06-10T01:26:00.000-07:00

I've been digging this color combo, yellow and black! These 2 colors (yellow and black) really help to make each other pop even though they resemble the colors of, erhh, well, a bumblebee! (which suggests the name of today blog post's title! Heh!)

I haven't been blogging nor scrapping, which is a really bad sign, given that I am actually on school holidays right now. I should spend the time doing either one of them instead of being a couch potato. Once school starts right back again, I am guessing I will have no time for either of them due to school commitments, homework, yadahyadah. I guess y'all get the drift.

Okay, I know I should stop showing layouts' sneaks with no intention of ever showcasing the entire layout to the public. The truth is... I am that much of a lazy piggo to take the layout and photograph it in a nice way that it can fully displays all the details, and everything in a nice-ish or at least decent way. I am not good at photographing layouts and I doubt I will be in any time soon, so yeah.

Scanning isn't a problem in showing all the details decently, but it really is a major hassle to do all the necessary edits in Photoshop after scanning, because afterall, my scanner is not 12x12, and instead, the standard A4 size scanner. And I am a sucker for die-cut papers, especially scallops, so the scallops details often get cut off at the side no matter how I dealt with it, so hmm, the only solution is to take multiple scans and piece everything together in Photoshop. Now you know it isn't all that fun, and its actually well, very technical-ish. :(

This layout, I sorta went crazy with all the placement and everything. I used one of the Paislee pages that Pink Paislee snugly produced. I must say, its soooo versatile!

That said, I need to work on some birthday cards now (it's crazy as to how 4 out of my 6 best buds' birthdays fall in June/July!) as well as the impending Father Day's card... off to check out some mojo nowwww.

Prima teen contest?

2009-05-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

As the fact that examinations have just ended up dawned upon me, I couldn't feel any happier!
Because, after exams are over, I can look forward to the following:

- More time for scrapping, of course
- Relaxation.
- Holidays (well, vacations were planned, but now these ideas have to be shelved thanks to the recent outrage of swine flu, talk about bummer!)
- More time to just stay at home
- Shopping!
- Sleeping - oh god, you have no idea how hard it is for me to crawl out of bed at the crack of each dawn before I get to school.

As usual, being the geek I ever am, I was bloghopping, message board-ing, pea-ing, and basically just adding an -ing to whatever scrapbooking is related to on the web. Checked out the new Studio Calico's reveal, and I FINALLY caved in and bought one kit. Ain't I proud of myself or what? I'm sooooo looking forward to receive it in my mail box. :D

In the midst of bloghopping, I happened to see this teen contest from Prima. I am like "BOOYAAAAAAA!" when I saw the notice. I mean, seriously, its so hard to have competitions catered towards teens to come by these days, since the main target group of scrappers are generally about the age whereby females take on the responsibility of motherhood, if you get what I mean, and now that it's restricted to scrappers between the age of 13-19 to focus on giving more chances towards the slightly younger group of scrappers (I am 15 going on 16 - I am perfectly in the midrange), WHO CAN GIVE THE CHANCE UP? :)

Oh lord, I am so excited now. Prima is so generous, just look at the prizes. I mean, while I am relatively sure I won't be able to win anything, I guess earning a feature on their blog (mind you, they get hundreds or even thousands of hits daily) would be sufficient to keep me grinning all day!

But of course, as every scrapper would dream, scrappy goodies for free if you do win the competition, for me, the chances are pretty low, considering there's still a huge bunch of talented young scrappers on there, let alone some 'diamonds in the rough'.

Do you see what I see? The 1st for this competition gets to earn a hefty prize of $200 (retail value) of Prima products (J'adore those flowers and papers!!), $100 barnes and nobles voucher (Prima sure knows how to encourage reading amongst us, huh!) and last but not least, guest designer spot on their design team, woots, sounds way too excitinggg, and even the runner-up gets to receive $150 retail value worth of prima products. That's enough to keep me hyperventilating all day long. :D

And the projects to be submitted are relatively simple, either a mini-book, layout or wall decor, and the theme is 'All about me'. A great chance for us, scrappers, as well, to get away from being the photographer and allow ourselves to shine through the camera lenses. It sounds like an awesome keepsake page for future memories as well. Maybe, 30 years later, when I chance upon the layout again, it will bring back those good ol' memories I had, and the crazy me when I was still an adolescent. Ah... :)

Even those layouts that are not selected for these yummy prizes get to be featured on Prima blog too, which is not a bad thing either, I mean, its PRIMA. Oh no, I almost sound like I am idolizing Prima now, which, in reality, actually, I am! The deadline is so loooong, and since I have a month full of vacation now, be sure that I will sink my heart and soul into creating something absolutely beautiful for the contest. And maybe, for the first time ever, my face would be seen, lol!

Home is where the heart is.

2009-05-15T23:20:00.000-07:00

A simple and minimalistic layout with no photos. Also tried on a different sizing other than 12" x 12", breaking down into 8.5" x 11". I guess I really broke out of my comfort zone this time. This is created for TwoPeas+Hamblys contest and I just submitted this in, with only about 20 minutes to the deadline, I guess I was lucky that my scanner didn't act up!

"Home is where the heart is" - don't you just believe so much in that quote? Your family is the only place you belongs to, even if you're at age 80 or something. many of us takes our family for granted, including me as well, and I hope by making this layout, it can serve as a form of reminder as well as therapy.

I've just had a few bickers with my family (well, what can it be about again, my studies) and I really hate it whenever that happens. :(

Supplies Used:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics (Kraft)
Embellishments: Jenni Bowlin, Prima , Lace (found from sewing kit, - to add an homely element, that's why)
Overlay/Transparency: Hambly Studios
Mist: Glimmer Mist (Watermeleon! :D)
Stickers: Hambly Studios
Rub-ons: Hambly Studios
Patterned Papers: Hambly Studios

I hope you guys will enjoy the weekend! Have a nice day ahead of you. :)

Some lovelies

2009-05-10T21:36:00.000-07:00

I like to lurk around online sites a lot, particularly those that are slightly catered to the 'crafty' side of me, although many times, I was tempted to click the 'checkout' button but never did. Here's a wishlist that I've conjured up. :)

The items are all available on shopplasticland.com if anybody's interested. :)

Things that are incredibly cute:

1. woodlands animals notebook with a reminiscent victoria era's feather pen :D

2. incredibly cute victorian bird hang-up art wall panel. - i totally dig the colors. :)

3. Miso pretty vespa tray (melamine) - reminds me of the 1950s era in oriental culture! :D

4. ice-cream cone kitchen timer. can you spell adorable? :)

5. a must-have for any die-hard desserts fans... in other words, me! (boy, do i crave for those chocolate frosting cupcakes right now!)

6. lined paper with screen-printed bird on each page. eekkkk, they're so beautiful. :)

7. retro salt and pepper shakes - domestic goddesses... UNITE!

I also hope this pictures serve as an inpiration to you - many of these items seems like chicken soup for the crafty soul!

2009-05-08T21:49:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the lousy quality - I had to photograph this instead of usually scanning it in because the scalloped edges were a b**** to scan in. :P One side gets cut-off no matter how I scan in the layout, because my layout is only 11" wide, sadly.

I've been creating quite frequently, lately, so here you go:

Supplies:
PPs: Crate Paper. American Crafts
Embellishments: Pink Paislee, Maya Rooad, Ki-Memories
Alphas: Pink Paislee
Bingo-card: Jenni Bowlin
Vintage ephemera: A page from an old storybook (got it from one of the craft kits in RedVelvetArt.com!)

Specially created this for a few of Studio Calico's NSD challenges, if you find this layout familiar, you probably have already found this layout in SC's member gallery sometime ago on NSD. Received a few positive comments, thank you so much ladies! :)

It's supposedly used for a few challenges:

Stephanie's "something old" challenge, that is, I must use at least one vintage 'something' in the layout, such has old stash, old photos, or just vintage ephemera or things that look old. :) Definitely a fun challenge to work with to explore your inner vintage side. :D

Tina's "white space" challenge, I'm normally a very 'layered' or 'clusters of hand-cut papers' person, and love to maximize every single space I have out of the 12" x 12" papers, so this white space enabled me to embrace the inner simple scrapper within me. :) Hopefully, I will be able to scrap more layouts that look much more uncluttered. (This layout is a vast improvement compared to my other layouts in terms of the 'white space' part, but there's definitely room for improvements).

Nicole's 3 PPs challenge, this is arguably one of the easiest challenge ever, and have the most number of scrappers submitting their work. I'm very much of a patterned paper person! (Seriously, look around this scrapblog and I bet you cannot find anything with cardstock as the base, Patterned papers just 'speak' to me the most! :)

I didn't win any of the challenges, but I am still happy that it actually manage to 'call' my mojo back!

That's all for now, hopefully I will be back soon with more layouts! Cheers and have a nice day!

xx
Shermin

NSD!

2009-05-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! It's National Scrapbooking Day and I can't be more happy with some many online shops coming out with promotional gimmicks and giveaways for us, the customers!

Studio Calico is being incredibly generous! You can stand a chance to win a 6-MONTH-SUB if you refer a friend! Now, I am tempted. I think without even winning this 6-month-sub (which I think I stand a very minor chance to...), I might just jolly well pay for the 6-month sub out of my own pocket. What can you say, I am just way, way way too in love with this site. :) BESIDES that, (yes, honestly, they really have more prizes to give out, I am getting more and more amazed at their generosity) each design team member had set a challenge and you can stand to win an add-on kit just by taking part in them. I'm definitely going to take part!

If you guys could please do me this favor,
Please go over to this thread, sign up for a username and post on that thread, telling them Shermin referred you! Thank you so much!

Sounds way too awesome! :) Also, if you've noticed, I've added the SC widget at my sidebar because guess what? Apparently, if you add the SC widget on your sidebar, you can stand to win a $50 SC gift card. Gosh, I am flooded with excitement! :)

TwoPeas is also coming up with a few awesome challenges too! You can earn a few awesome prizes by just taking part in them, boy, am I tempted or what?! I initially wanted this post to be focused on what the scrapbook products I'm in love with lately but all this NSD frenzy is making me so distracted and dizzy, well, in a good way of course! :)

I will be back later to share some more cool links, hopefully!

Back to do a mini update!

2009-04-30T23:28:00.000-07:00

Woohoooo its NSD tomorrow! Are you as excited for it as I am? There's gonna be lots of sites who're carrying out giveaways so I can't wait to participate in some of them! (Who doesn't love some free & delicious scrap goodies to their doorstep?!)

I've been creating, but not exactly the best layout I've created yet. Scratch that, I just realised the bohemian/shabby-chic style isn't working for me. I can't work with grungy patterns!

Patterned papers: Hot Off the press
Chipboard: Unknown sources :P
Alphabets: American Crafts Dolce Thickers
Flowers: Prima
Glitter: Stickles
Ink: ColorBox's silver

But this layout happened to bring me out of my comfort zone. Hand-cutting designs from the patterned papers is my favorite technique ever, and I've never done a layout without handcutting! For the first time ever, in this layout, I tried stamping! (The stamp you see here is an exclusive stamp from Label Tulip! :D) Not just that, distressing as well! Distressing the fabric thickers from American Crafts was so much fun! I love the effect... here's a close up for anybody who wants to see them in detailed view (and better quality!):

I got these papers, chipboard and ink from a recent RAK I've won from participating in a challenge at my local LSS. :) They're not my style, but hopefully I've conjured up something decent out of it!

Thanks for looking! :D I would definitely appreciate any comments sent in my way!

mojo, come back please.

2009-04-24T23:21:00.000-07:00

I just realised I haven't been good on updating stuff! :) It has been exactly 3 weeks since I last blogged, isn't it? :/ I have been suffering from a major mojo blankness and thus, all the non-scrappy updates.

I will just leave you guys with a sneak (a layout) that I semi-completed using at least 50% of Label Tulip's Sept kit. Let's see which ones you can spot. :) More details and full reveal later when I have completed everything and added the finishing touches. The sneak is just for fun and nothing formal haha!

TFL!

xx
Shermin

Who's up for some easter egg lovin'? :)

2009-04-05T00:39:00.000-07:00

As we all know, Easter is coming really soon and therefore, a little easter egg lovin' is definitely needed. :) As a scrapbooking challenge posed by my LSS, the challenge is to alter an easter egg. The rules being that it must be a real chicken egg and that you must at least scrap 1 photo in. Sounds tough? Well, definitely. ;)

The height of a chicken egg is barely 2 inches, and uh-huh, it's really fragile. To add on to the difficulty of this challenge, the chicken egg has its own unique shape and it will be really hard to use PP to alter it as it will only bend the PP and ultimately destroy it. Cutting the papers into strips aren't exactly useful either...

My original idea is to make a flower vase out of the egg shell, and each of the flower (I am not gonna use real flowers, I am not one person who will give TLC to these little lovelies.. so its best that I don't let them die/wither in my hands!... probably some new Prima flowers or chipboard flourishes from Maya Road would do the trick!) would serve as a frame for the photos. :) I got that inspiration from the MM Flower Patch ad in last month's Creating Keepsakes magazine. ;)

At first, I tried to glimmer mist the egg (!!). Haha, sounds ridiculous? :) Well, it sure is. As Glimmer Mist are all water-based and the egg shell is generally waterproof... so yeah, it was a failed attempt. But some of the glimmer coating got onto the egg even though the mist color is not very obvious, but oh well, better than nothing. ;(

Then, I tried to stick on some PPs stripes on the egg and obviously, 'cause of the odd shape, I can't do it. I tried to search for some 'flimsy materials' that will stick better on egg, and at last, my savior appeared! Guess that it is...

LACE! I think I must be the first person who put lace on an egg! Haha, sounds funny doesn't it? I am so giving this little egg here the baby chick treatment (you get the pun? :P). But unfortunately, as I was trying to put lace over the egg, I accidentally dropped my egg down the floor cause the lace was too long. :/ So um, it had a little crack there and it got more fragile.

Alas, when I tried to stick on the chipboard embellishment, the eggshell finally cracked open fully. (I guess I used too much pressure). I got disheartened after that but I realised that I could very well just get another bigger egg since the ones at home are honestly too small to work with. ;)

Here's a piccy of the lace w/ embellishments after the egg was thrown into the dustbin (byebye!):

Ribbon: Lace (self-owned, bought in local art store)
Die-cuts: Making Memories
Dimensional Stickers: Making Memories
Chipboard elements: Making Memories

I'm sorry you've to see 5% of my creepy little toe in the above picture lol! As you can obviously tell, besides the lace that I used, the rest of the products are from Making Memories' easter line from last year, "Garden Party". :) Don't get me wrong, I love "Flower Patch" but I am still in the hoarding peroid with it and I just can't get myself to cut it out no matter what. Sad, I know.

Up next, I just gotta hollow out yet another egg and (hopefully) succeed in glimmer-misting that same egg. :) Also, I gotta dip my Maya Road flourishes in PP silver pixee stick for some shiny appeal. :) And then, I will attach the MM chipboard butterfly with a cut-out of an photo of Petrina onto the Maya Road flourishes and we will be done with the egg! I can't wait to show you guys what I am coming up with! :)

P.S: I'm on an online-shopping frenzy right now and would love to see some craft shops (preferably related to scrapbooking and fabrics :D) so I would love any recommendations my way. Also looking for some new thickers to play with! :D

monthly kit clubs & other online shopping haunts I frequent!

2009-03-28T22:10:00.000-07:00

I have been keeping track of kit clubs for quite some time...

Always tempted to buy a few kits here and there but international shipping is horrendous, I tell ya. I am still hesitating on which scrap clubs should I choose... I signed up for a few subs here and there and ended up terminating them midway. Subs are definitely cheaper but then again some kit clubs doesn't allow you to skip a kit or something, that's well, rather sad. :(

Here's my comments on a few kit clubs, its just solely my comments and they are in no way the official representation of the KCs ok? :)

Scarlet Lime - A kit club that's certainly worth your money. Has vintage ephemera here and there and also exclusive papers in a few months periodically (I got the Sept and Nov one ;D). I also love the exclusive clear stamps that come with each kit. Super-worth-your-money because you get loads more than what you pay at your LSS. :) However, as the months go on, I have realised the kit colors schemes are kinda not my taste. They always have exotic color combi like black/green/red, blue/yellow/brown. Sure they allow me to go out of my comfort zone but at the end of the day, I still prefer working with colors I love. They also only bring in new products every now and then... However, I am a big fan of their project kits each month. The sad thing is the project kits can go out within days, or even hours!! I want a project kit sub, pretty please?!

Label Tulip - A kit club which regularly brings in new products (Oh, how I love new products!) They also have an amazing design team with monthly influx of inspiration from their gallery as well. Their own exclusive stamps are also cool as well. While not being big on the design on the stamps, its the basic designs that make the stamps very versatile (think speech bubble, honeycomb links and more :D) However, on the worth-for-money part, they're not really working on it. There's quite a lot of papers with each kit but embellishments are mostly kept on the minimal. On the other hand, I am a sucker for exclusive ephemera here and there, and sadly, they don't feature ephemera often in their kits and even when they do, just like its embellishments, its kept to the minimium.

Studio Calico - This would be the next kit club I am considering. Kits are affordable if you're looking at the sub price ($29.50, eek, finally something below $30, yay!) and they've their own exclusive paper designs that you can't find anywhere. Besides their exclusive papers, they also have their own exclusive embellishments - FabRIPS, those fabRIPS are so cool. They are adhesive-backed fabric strips that you can well, RIP it. (LITERALLY haha). Just the sound of it sounds so exciting and its an innovative venture. :) They also have an amazing team of designers and also have the most number of them that I have ever seen in any kit club so far. For their kits, I could say color combination at its best. ;) I love muted colors with bright colors popping up here and there. They also regularly bring in new products! Their project kits are also awesome and I love the new feature in their site - a shop. You can purchase matching embellies (think thickers, brads and more!) as well as some other tools, like matching Maya Mists, new Fiskar borders punches (oooh how I love thy Upper Crest one :D) As I have not purchased anything yet (I discovered 'em late and I am regretting!), I am unable to commnet on other aspects. ;(

Bad Girls Kits - Haha, the name is already such a magnet for all bad scrappers out there. Their kits are awesome and packed full of papers and embellies. The best part is they always have loads of Primas, ahhh, how I love Primas! Their new flowers, stitched papers and PINK pearls earn my votes this CHA. :D Their design team also recently expanded and what I love is they always put extra notes at the bottom of each layout! It adds a little touch of coziness to me. :) Isn't that what scrapbooking is about? :D I would buy all the kits there but the prices are really really really... well, not affordable (especially for international scrappers like me) at the hefty tag of $42.95 (not inclusive of shipping). If you add on shipping, it will be about $60USD for a kit... doesn't really solve out to be a good bargain for me. :( But I do love their ephemera... look at the designer fabric and flashcards featured this month!

A Million Memories - I have always been stalking this monthly kit club. Furthermore, they have limited edition kits that come out every now and then so even if you don't like what they offer in each month, you can always go to the limited edition kits section! Beware though, there's only a few of those limited edition kits and you will need to get them fast before they all get snatched up by greedy people like me! Each monthly kit primarily feature new products (they are actually a store by themselves so I believe they always have a lot of stock themselves too!) and I love what they offer. Price is also reasonably priced and the only bad thing is that the embellishments are kept to a minium... but its worth the price after you calculate everything. :)

So what now?! Which ones should I take? :D Should I continue my subs with SL & LT or just register a new sub with any of the kit clubs I have mentioned? These are my favourites so far.

As for those cute ones without any sub... (which I buy incessantly every month since they always have what I am looking for and is also very affordable..!)

QTea Kits ~ Danielle is way too awesome. She puts so many items up for bargains on her shop and there's so many ephemera in each kit! I love to use them as embellishments! The best thing is the shop is based in Australia so international shipping to Singapore is dirt cheap (Yipee!) Is there any excuse for me to NOT buy from Qtea?!

Sweet Twee Lab ~ Oh! I love the mix between the new products and the random paper supplies in each kit. The color combination is also awesome. I always love the color schemes and the papers she put in each kit. Price is also very reasonable especially if you're thinking of getting a preorder at the good ol' price of $25. Kits also sell like hotcakes each month but the good thing is there's always the papercrafting kits that are put up at the end after each month's kit is sold. The papercrafting kit is almost like the real deal except a few embellies and papers are missing here and there but most of the time, at least half of the kits supplies are inside. And they're frigging cheap too! At $10~$15, who would resist?!

Ah I am done! :D I hope to hear any comments that could aid me in my decision. Do note that I am in no way affiliated to any of the kits mentioned here, it's just my honest opinions on each one of them!

P.S: Out of the scrapping world, fredflare.com, thelittlepinkstudio.com and Elsie's shop (redvelvetart.com) are probably the sites I frequent most! :D

sorry!

2009-03-12T02:58:00.001-07:00

for the massive lack of updates here. :) I am back to show some eye candy, seeing that I've been creating. It sure does feels good to know that I am still continuing to become the arty-farty little me.

Oh, and watch out all you blog-headers-lovers people ;D, I've acquired some digi scrapping skills and would probably apply them to help me put on a blog-header. So rejoice! No more boring blog layouts without a colorful header!

Something that I've done but 'still doesn't feel right', that kinda layout. I am not sure whether that makes sense, oh well!

I have added a 'signature style' watermark indicating this is my photograph, even though there's nothing to steal, but I kinda like the effect it brings the photo. I guess I am a sucker for anything that just looks handmade/arty-farty! :D

I will be back!

Currently in the midst of creating a birthday card for a beloved friend (and her twin, oh how I wish I can have a twin sister!) who's away on camp (imagine having to spend your birthday with creepy-crawlies) and I would probably be back soon to reveal it when the beautiful recipient is already met with the surprise. (which will be sunday/monday!)

First attempt at digital scrapbooking

2009-02-28T01:10:00.000-08:00

Well well well, I was drawn to these cute little fruits images and since it was at the good ol' price of $8 for papers, die-cuts, labels and since they're all printable, it could work for the 80%-traditional-scrapper like me. :)

Thought it was a value for all those cute stuff! I swear, my designing skills are so not doing it any justice. I am sure there's so much more talented ladies utilizing the kit and makin' it work. ;)

Here's the piccy; if anybody's interested that is. I changed the hue and saturation for a whole load of stuff, make-pretense-scallop-border, and basically drop-shadowed everything else. Not a good attempt, I think. Wasn't feeling all that good physically and mentally while I was doing this layout and I don't work under mood swings, so uh...

I hope no one noticed I used the same photograph as the sneaky that was shown in a previous post... shh! This shot of Petrina was too cute to NOT use again.

Tata, have a blessed weekend, people! :)

Really tired.

2009-02-27T06:58:00.000-08:00

I am just really tired. I am drained out physically, and possibly mentally soon...

I spy with my little eye againnn..

2009-02-14T23:24:00.001-08:00

I'm officially detached from the online world.
*Not exactly, but pretty much even more detached from my scrapblog*

Probably one of the worst 'sneaks' photographed in the whole world.
Featuring one of the most gorgeous Valentine's collection I have ever seen, manufactured by Making Memories. They certainly deserve the credit. ;)

(pst, this is not for any special challenge or anything, just thought that the whole sneaky thing makes it look cute, and I haven't exactly finished this layout, so yeah. I need to get my ass off the computer chair and go get a few doilies!)

My mojo went on a long hard vacation and somehow, never came back. I am my own worst critic, so any layout that are perhaps already 3/4 done and if it still doesn't looks pleasing to me, it goes into the bin. That's as bad as the situation is...

I have never been that kind of scrapper who can scrap without any single stress and also within a very short time (except for a few instances of course), so coming up with a layout, especially when school reopened 1 and a half month ago makes it very difficult for me.

Everytime I start on a layout, there's bound to be a few inevitable dilemma.
Does it looks good horizontally or vertically? Does the photo's colors matches those of the papers and 'bellies I have used? Will this be a eye-catching layout? So on and so forth. I think the number of layouts I have chucked into the bin cannot be count with the number of fingers that we, every other normal human has.

Photography, on the other hand, hasn't been much kinder to me either. I'm not trained professionally in the art of photography (well, actually, I self-learnt whatever I know about my camera. You know, something like trial and error? ;D) so most of my photographs have a few glitches here and there.

I have never made the effort to learn about the various functions, the effect of lightning on photographs and most of all, what makes a good photograph anyway, besides, I am stuck with the option of having a 5 megapixels digital camera and not having the almighty DSLR that I can only hope for in my dreams.

Yes, that's the woes of a poor student who's still waiting to enter college and eventually get a job somewhere, and eventually having the finances to buy something viable.

On the other hand, I curbed my temptation of hoarding and finally dehoarded some stash. *See the layout sneaky above* I finally ripped open that fateful pack of Making Memories die-cut tags (my heart wrenched when I did that, call me a drama mama, but that's the cold hard truth) to spend a quarter of them (not literally) on the layout above.

Hmm... anyway, as I entered my LSS to enjoy some eye candy and also at the same time subduing myself not to sink deeper into the sea of hoarding, I still sank into it anyway. I bought these BEAUTIFUL highquality washi paper. Be sure to see more of these darlings in my future layouts! (or maybe not, I will probably cherish them to much to use them and instead continue to hoard them...)

Here's some eye candy for you guys too! (Do you guys love/hate me or what? :D)

Yes, I am self-aware the photography in this one sucks too.

You should have looked at them in real-life! The quality of the paper felt very much like fabric and I heard it's actually recommended for quilting too! The prints are fabulous too! I am not sure whether you can tell in the photograph above, but all the flowers are actually outlined in gold foil and sprinkled with gold sparkle.... eek! What's NOT to love about these papers?!

On yet another happy note, it took me like a pathetic week before realising I am the winner of the ScrapSchemes' challenges/prompts. I hope they haven't confiscate the goodies they meant for the winner anyway. :P

This would be what I am expecting in the mail very very soon. ;)

Now, spying with my little eye, I spots some extremely pretty inks, stamps, papers, rubons, flair badges, stitched blossoms, stickles, paint & brads. Yes, I'm that awesome.
Have I mentioned how much I loved this pack of goodies? Now, turn your pretty head over to the Scrapschemes blog again, and you will realise for their next challenge, they are also giving out some extremely yummy-looking goodies.

Do they also have another policy of not letting the previous winner win again? Cause I certainly would love to put my paws on this pack of baby too, tell me who can resist MM goodies? Resistence is futile, baby.

Now, get going to scrapschemes. If you do win, please share this pack of goodies with me, pretty please? *flutters eyelashes* I will love you forever if you do so!

Birthday card :)

2009-02-10T06:53:00.000-08:00

A birthday card that I made for a friend!

It was really simple and I finished it within 5 mins.
Supplies:

PP: OA
Alphas: AC Thickers
Die-cuts: My Mind Eye's

Can't wait to get inspired again!

Muses & inspirations!

2009-02-01T08:04:00.000-08:00

It's 12 midnight here right now and instead of utilizing the time for my much-needed sleep (gotta wake up tomorrow at 7am, or should I say, today? ;D Heh!), I am online at flickr searching for all my muses!

Hope they are as much inspiration to you as they're to me!

Stuck in a rut.

2009-01-28T09:48:00.000-08:00

Manufacturers are on the rage of giveaways (yay!)
But too bad I practically won none of them... sigh haha, perhaps the "competition" is too tight!

I know I am not making any sense right now.
There's nothing that's majorly inspiring me these days (Fabrics are becoming one of my new muses)... so yeah. Just logged on to post this tiny little rant. :P

Layout (after countless days of being stuck)

2009-01-23T09:24:00.000-08:00

Here I go, I finally posted a layout again. Hasn't been feeling inspired these days. It was by chance that I suddenly got the motivation to scrap. Ironically, every other people would do new year resolutions before the new year but I only started on this layout sometime during the 10th-15th. (I like to take breaks in between creating... it helps me to relax and hence create a more balanced and desirable product ;D)

Basically I glimmer-misted practically the whole page. Since many challenges blog feature challenges that require us to do our new year resolutions, I thought this layout is the perfect way to enter into these challenges. Some RAKs they put up for the winner is seriously drool-inducing.

That said, even though there's a slim chance that I would win, I wouldn't mind it either, if I lost. As long as there's a slight chance of winning, I would try a shot at it anyway.

Challenges and their scrumptious RAKs/prizes are the motivation for us, poor scrappers lol!

The title isn't blatantly obvious in this layout but instead, all my different texts/resolutions can be used as both the title and journaling of the layout... pretty cool huh? ;) I have never really tried such bold hues, and I feel pretty neutral about this layout. Don't love it, but don't hate it either. :P

Sorry for making you listen to the above crap, and now let the picture do the talkin' (after all, pictures speak a thousand words right? :D)

Supplies:
PP: American Crafts
Chipboard: K&Co, Scenic Route, Tattered Angels
Stickers: K&Co, Love Elsie, American Crafts

If you want to know which challenges blogs I entered this layout into, here you go!

- Butterfly Crafts
- Scrap Schemes

Hoooooo loves giveaways?

2009-01-23T09:01:00.000-08:00

I do!

Christine over at Creative Journey is offering a RAK cause she just hit 50k hits on her blog! :D What wonderful news. How about I promise I will do the same too when my blog reaches 50k hits, lol?!

Look at the RAK she prepared...

Do you see what I see? I am an absolute fan for pink so this is doing it for me. :D Furthermore, this Making Memories Sabrina line (along with the Chloe's Closet line) are only exclusively available at Michael's, and sad to say, even if I got the dough to shop at my LSS, I can't get it here as there's no Michael's over here in SG. I wouldn't fathom paying the rocket-high shipping these days so... yeah.

Head over now! :D
http://creativejourney.typepad.com/creative_journey/2009/01/card-2-sketches-4-you.html#comments

I'm a CHA stalker. [super picture-heavy!]

2009-01-19T19:09:00.000-08:00

Being the ever-online CHA stalker I am, I knew I had to post some sneaks! (And also serve as a self-reminder to myself as to which products I am going to buy in the future, you know, kinda like a shopping list, haha)

COSMO CRICKET

If you asked me which collection(s) I love most, I think it gotta be "Girl Friday" and "Ever After". Girl Friday caters to all of us who is still child at heart and perhaps a child physically (me, kay, I'm a teenager, but still a childddd). Ever After is soooo elegant and the hues are so classic, I love how CC will lauch out with a few 'playful & cute' lines accompanied with one 'elegant and soft' lines, if that make sense! Snorkel looks totally cute too... but I love the other 2 colors more... :D

Next up...

SASSAFRAS LASS
(once again, its yet another open secret that I love this company sooooo much that I always rush to my LSS whenever there's new arrivals of goodies from this company, and of course, they did not fail my expectations this time)

They're a little different this time, without all the woodland creatures, but still vintage-ly cute!

Initially I was a little bummed when I did not see my favorite woodland creatures appearing on Sassafras Lass's papers, but "Vintage Yummy" slowly (nah, not really that slow, lol) grew on me!

Just look at it and you will know why..

My favourite PP out of all the papers could be the "Memory Lane" one... I love the retro circles that are revolving around the paper (seems like circles are the new trend now eh? Wait for it, I think Pink Paislee came up with another paper featuring mod circles designs... sweet!)

"Darling Deer" and "Remember me" are equally pretty too, they almost embodied Sassafras Lass all over them! I can't wait for SL's new monograms (so versatile!) and their newest playing cards as well!

This is only the 1st collection out of all their sneaks, and I think as you can tell, I am already head over heels with it, if they are going to go with "save the best for the last", I don't know how in love I will be with in their 3rd collection...

Well now, let's see some new products kickin' in from American Crafts, shall we? ;)

Thickers, thickers thickers, virtually the staple diet for all die-hard scrappers out there... and do you hear meh this time? *NEW THICKERS ALERT - so many new fonts to die-for!* Betcha gonna die with thickers overload!

Polka-dot puffy accents, sweet!

New font (gotta love all those that looks so curcisve ones...)

Now, I want one of each font, each color, don't try to stop me. (or actually, seriously, try to stop me, I am contradicting myself cause of all the new products overload O_O)

Now for their awesome papers.
American Crafts has also rised to being one of my favorite companies when it comes to Patterned Papers (not that I don't love any of their other products though! :D)

And now, can we forget the ever-popular embellishments from AC...

Lots of great American Crafts ribbon

Details Layered Embellishments ... (I love this new small & petite packaging! :D)

Minimarks...

FLA!R!!!

Transparent stickers are my favorite embellishments, they are so vibrant and always make my pages 'pop'!

The journalling stickers... woah, just too cute to miss!

All of them are screaming 'BUY ME! BUY ME!'... now where is my bank account money going towards again? *sigh*

WEBSTER PAGES
(I was so surprised I didn't notice them the other time!)

Those beautiful hues of pale pink, kraft, beige, green, turqoise & cream... total temptation. Resistance is futile, like how they would say it.

Magical wishes! (Can I make a wish that, hoping they would come free to me! Just joking!)

A sweet life! (Who can create ugly pages with these beautiful papers?)

Click on each image to view it in its full-sized glory!

PINK PAISLEE

So…lets jump right into some of the papers shall we???

Introducing…Fetching

These spirited designs capture the charming appeal of the boy who wants to be stylish for dress-up, yet rugged when playtime comes around.

Enjoy the sneak

See what I am talking about when I mentioned the mod circles? Oooh and new die-cut paper, gotta have 'em all! (That sounds familiar, doesn't it?)

CRATE PAPER
To save you guys the trouble...
BAM

Click on each thumbnail to see each of the new collections!

(New die-cut papers, again!)

Jenni Bowlin
Farmer's Wife

Love the new papers!

These journaling cards are sooo cute!

These buttons.. just reminds us of our mothers' time, right? Vintage cream buttons topped with a tiny little pink rhinestones, true Jenni Bowlin's style. :D

I need the vintage little girl's buttons... NOW!

Making Memories

I don't know whether you're supposed to love them or hate them... cause, they always tempt us with that little sneak peeks and then WOW us with the real products. I still love them though! :D <3

I'm thinking this is a new travel line

And this, like everybody else assumed, should be a wedding line:

(Love the colors, you can't go wrong with cream and brown, black and white... now I need some sneaks of the new die-cut papers MM is going to come up with... pretty please? D: )

Collage Press

Such a tiny little sneak, but speaks much for itself!

S.E.I

I love all the new releases last year, and this year is no exception!

Mimosa
February release

Bridgeport
February Release

En Route
April Release

Playday
June Release

HEIDI GRACE
Sweetest Bug

Forever Love

Bella Blvd's doing a giveaway!

2009-01-19T18:27:00.000-08:00

Woohoo! Giveaways, don't you always love 'em?

A while ago, I won this super beautiful fortune-telling mermaid from Gauche Alchemy along with some goodies that are currently shipping over to me now.

Now that CHA is sneaking on, so many sneak peeks has suddenly gone bursting! There's so many new stuff that I wanna buy, but the best thing is that manufacturers are now doing giveaways to us, the poor public who are still anxiously waiting for CHA and other new arrivals...

Here you go, Bella Blvd is holding a giveaway and woahh, you get to win the new collection from them...

SWEET CELEBRATIONNNNN!
Now get over to Bella Blvd (:

Here's one of my favorite papers from them... I think it's an open secret that I love cupcakes and everything colorful now... :P

Street trip

2009-01-18T03:40:00.000-08:00

Haji Lane, is the narrowest lane in Singapore (I think, ahah), but is also known to be a fashion haven, especially for those indielabels-lovers. Being the die-hard scrapper/photographer I am, could I give up the chance to snap some beautiful pictures? I guess not! :P

Only a few, it took me 5 minutes to finish taking them all, I didn't even bother about taking a second shot, ahah!

Added some awesome vignette textures onto these pictures. You can google 'vignette textures' to find them! I love them sooo much, they add such a vintage and neutralistic tone to my photographs :)

That's all.
Pardon me for my lousy photography... I was only armed with a 5megapixs point-and-shoot and thus, the lousy photographs. I hope to get a DSLR next Christmas! :P

Wowzers

2009-01-11T07:59:00.000-08:00

After 5 tedious hours of

- abandoning
- throwing
- heartaching
- sweating
- nervous-breakdowning

......
.....
....
...
..
.

I FINALLY CLEARED MY BEDROOM (which doubles up as my scraproom :x)
Yeah, it was that much hard work...

Now that its ready to meet the daylight, and it actually looks kinda void now, its the best time to scrappppppeeeedoodleeeeeeee.

Online-shopping pleasures + WINNER!

2009-01-04T10:16:00.000-08:00

I expect this post to be picture-heavy as I think I need to cover quite a few stuff (mostly stuff that make me excited - ha, what else other than scrapbooking? ;] )

Firstly, I entered a layout of mine into my LSS's mid month challenge over at their forum. Guess what? To my utter surprise, I actually won. It really came as a surprise because there were many other talented scrappers who had even more talent than me when it comes to scrapping who participated.

For anyone who's interested in seeing that winning layout, here you go ;)
(I apologise for that weird grey line at the top, I guess something went wrong while I was trying to scan in that layout)

This photo was taken in early '06, almost 3 years away. The photo subject is our (my friends and me) legs in the water over at the skypark of a local shopping mall (yes, we have a skypark. :D) and we were trying to do the standard 'teensie BFF leg' pose. Cliche, but honestly it was fun.

Products used:
Patterned Papers: Sassafras Lass
Stickers: Making Memories, Scenic Route, Love Elsie, Sassafras Lass
Blings: Prima

Secondly, I have been spending too much money online lately. Well, it was for a good cause. Scrapbooking to me, is a good cause. ;)

First up, I bought three kits from Qteakits. (What to do, they are having MAJOR sale and shipping is so cheap from Australia to Singapore! Quick hurry over there, kits are going away so fast!)

I bought the Dec'08, Nov'08 and Jan'09 one, seriously, at $10AUD (except for Jan'09) per kit, I have to get those kits. Those three kits only add up to $30USD including shipping, which to me, sounds absolutely reasonable. :)

Funny thing is, the RAK from the challenge that I won is Qtea's Jan'09 kit, so now I am going to receive duplicate kits, sweet! Pardon me, I really didn't know I was gonna win and when I saw the prize page being put up, I knew I was gonna get that kit myself even if I don't win it. After I looked at all the other beautiful entries submitted in, I thought I am so gonna lose, therefore I decided to get the kit for myself too... so yeah, sometimes things come unexpected! :P

Then I got this super cute project kit from Scarlet Lime. It's going out so fast now that it's already sold out. No surprise there, this baby is so darling. It includes a lot of products from Making Memories newest line, "Love Notes". Oh, if you ask me what I think about that new line, dare I say, it can even beat my previous alltime-favorite collections from Making Memories (Noteworthy 1 and Noteworthy 2)

Don't they just look especially scrumptious? The PPs, the rubons, the dimensional stickers and everything else. No wonder I was willing to splurge it all out on this beautiful kit. :) What makes me even more happy is all the other goodies Christy throw in the kit that aren't really commercialized. (I always love non-commercialized sb supplies, it just ties the whole connection to the old-school scrapbooking altogether... :D)

And now, I also bought elsie's new craft kit. (can't wait for her store and online store to open in Feb this year! I am sooooo excited for more of her new craft kits, they are always so fun and versatile!)

Oh the scrapping front, I have been feeling semi-inspired lately. Mr Mojo came into my brain just visiting for a few hours before going off again, so during that time I only managed to finish 2 layouts. But, oh-well, much better than nothing, of course! :D

Contented

2008-12-30T07:29:00.000-08:00

Went out today and got a few stuff for myself.

Honestly speaking, all of them are related to scrapbooking in some sense:

- Satin photo paper! (Yes, I love the soft texture oh-so-much... I don't really adore glossy photo paper, I know, call me weird, it's like how people prefer diamonds to pearls but I prefer pearls to diamonds heh)

- Creating Keepsakes Jan 09 issue

- Scrapbook Etc Jan 09 issue

- 2GB Memory card (I max-ed out my 1GB memory card and after countless times of attempting to delete some precious photographs, I finally got myself to get a new memory card... now I don't have to worry about max-ing the the space now, well, at least for the time being :P)

- Printing ink. The colour ink on my printer is running low, so, a new ink cartridge to the rescue!

Of course, I am contented with my purchases today. :P

On the scrapping front, I just managed to upload and scan in a layout I did about 2 weeks ago and I just submitted that into my LSS's mid-monthly challenge. The RAK for the winner is the yummylicious Qtea Jan kit. Just thinking about it left me salivating over it... of course, the chances of me winning the challenge could be an impossible feat! There are so many talented scrappers in Singapore and I couldn't be more than glad to see a deserving party get that awesome prize. :)

I will upload the layout over here when I feel less lazier. 2009 is coming! I wanted to sound excited and all, but afterall, that implies that the school year is going to start as well... the top on my new year's resolution is to not spend so much time on scrapbooking and instead focus on my studies, of course! Then again, this is yet another impossible feat to achieve... I guess maybe I should just ~~give up.~~

Xmas gifts

2008-12-27T07:34:00.000-08:00

As a scrapbooker, handmade gifts are never lacking all year round, especially Christmas. Afterall, tis the season for giving!

I made some notebooks for some of my besties to embrace the new school year dawning upon us in 2009. :( How I wish school holidays would last all-year-round. :( Sigh, all good things must come to an end.

Before these lovelies were given away, I took quite a few pictures of them and edited them in Photoshop, which explains the weird yellowish hue (I thought it was really nifty :D) on quite a few pictures as I was still messing around with layers and opacity.

Last but not least, there's always the receiving part.
Here's my family got:

(This is probably my favourite picture out of the lot) :P
A sweet little candycane with some exquisite tea bags. :)

Giveaway on Lou's blog!

2008-12-27T00:11:00.000-08:00

As I chanced upon a thread on Twopeas' message board about a giveaway, I knew I cannot give it up. As a student/teenager who doesn't holds any jobs/income, it can be rather hard to keep up with this hobby, and I do not want to keep asking my parents for $ whenever I need to buy any scrapbooking supplies. Thus, giveaways are always a good way for me to gain new scrapbooking supplies. :)

For anybody who's interested in getting $150 worth of Cosmo Cricket product, here is this link to Lou's giveaway post: http://lifeaslou.blogsome.com/2008/12/20/christmas-mini-album-pages-6-7-plus-150-give-a-way/. I have been an avid fan of Cosmo Cricket and while I do hope to win this giveaway, I hope that this giveaway would also be given to someone else who's more deserving as me! :) So here goes, you just have to leave a comment over there to stand a chance to win the giveaway. Simple right? :) So pop over to her blog right now! :)

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T19:24:00.000-08:00

Here in Singapore, it's already 25th December, therefore it's already Christmas over here. For the northern hemisphere of the globe, Merry Christmas in advance!

Haven't been scrapbooking much lately. Been catching up with friends, going out with family, so on and so forth, therefore leaving myself with limited time for scrapping. The holidays and festive season has done nothing to kill my scrapping inspiration though, probably I am overwhelmed with some new guilty pleasures lately... (shhh)

The flea market trip was a complete failure. I made $0 sales at all, yes, nothing was sold at all. Perhaps my target audience was not exactly in the crowd over at the flea market. My items are catered for teenagers while most of the crowd there are middle-aged citizens with their young kids. At times of recession, I understand that one must tighten their purse, although I didn't expect much sales, I was hoping to at least get at least 10 or 20 bucks out of it...

However, yesterday, while on the way counting down to Christmas, I took a little break from being the resident geek at home and didn't touch my computer at all (Aw D:) I plucked up a whole lot of courage (maybe not that much) to open that drawer of doom. Why the name "Drawer of doom"? Cause everytime I open that drawer, a mess of papers, tools, and a lot of other junk would mysteriously appear in the middle of nowhere. That kinda sounds like Pandora's Box, doesn't it, without all the evil creatures and stuff? Maybe I should rename my Drawer of doom to Pandora's Box. Then again, my name ain't Pandora. ;)

Okay, enough of all the craptalk. :)

Here's a mini project I did using one of Pink Paislee Blog's tutorials. :)

Um, here's the front view. Not the best paper ring made ever, and I doubt anyone would wear paper on their fingers out. (I didn't wear it out, but I wore it at home the whole day. :D Yes, that's how narcissistic I am)

The side view.

These 2 are probably my best photographs this month. If you think these photographs are very amateur-ish, yes, they really are. I didn't read any tutorials on getting the "perfect photograph" nor receive any training. The best training I had was probably hearing from my dad how to operate the camera. The photographs are post-processed in Photoshop of course, I couldn't stand all my photographs being free of processing and then being posted online. Who would want to see a photograph that's so grainy and has terrible quality? So, I tweaked around the images a little. A little bit of messing around with the layers and contrast make a photograph look vaguely decent. Yes, that's the magic of Photoshop. ;)

What's the next thing to do on my to-do-list?
To create new notebooks for the upcoming school year of 2009 :)

Not inspired :(

2008-12-13T17:12:00.000-08:00

I practically abandoned all of my current projects.

My fatal attack point in scrapbooking is probably photos. I think I have never really done any other layouts that actually have more than 1 photo. As much as scrapbooking is about preserving as many memories as you can, I always feel that 1 photo is enough when they fail to tell the story, and the only reason why I use 1 photo only on my layouts despite my contradicting words just now is because I think having too many photos can crash the whole layout. :(

I'm currently working on a super-multiple-photo-layout (probably about 8 photos in one layout - it will be a record set for me if I really did finish this) and I hope I will not abandon this project. Then afain, right now, it only lacks the title and photos. I will probably print them out in snapshot size. :)

Oh and just for trivia purposes, one of my favourite scrapbook layout base are probably die-cut papers. I just love how delicate and pretty they are that regular 12x12 square PP are unable to bring me. Thus, don't be surprised if you see much more die-cut-layouts compared to normal PP size layout as I really really love die-cut papers! :) Needless to say, this current layout I am working on has a die-cut-PP base too... and a lot of other sassafras lass goodies!

Christmas certainly haven't slowed down my scrapbooking's pace. The only thing that's slowing my scrapbooking pace is probably preparations for my first flea market booth. However, I tried to incorporate scrapbooking into the preparations too! I made gift bags and price tags (yes! :D) out of the older PPs that I no longer had use for :)

Here's a sneak :)

This is probably not the best picture ever but this is the only decent picture I got as I took this at 3am in the morning when the sunlight certainly isn't shining in!

That's all for now, and sorry for not updating this scrapblog for a rather long peroid of time, as I haven't been really up to some scrapbooking business these days :(

Another birthday layout..

2008-11-29T12:27:00.000-08:00

Of course it's a joyous occasion to scrap your birthday... and others' too. But narcisstic me seriously did too much birthday layouts for myself and none for others.

Must.stop.being.so.narcisstic.
Must.stop.being.so.selfish.
Must.create.more.layouts.about.others.

Anyhowdy, long story cut short.
I created a birthday layout (photoless) for myself during late September to celebrate my upcoming birthday this year, and yet now again, I created ANOTHER birthday layout for myself, but the subject in photo was yours truly when I was 1 showcasing the magnificent gifts (maybe not-so-magnificent now that I have grown up :P, but I still appreciate the gifts that my parents bought for me, it's still here! But it's quite dusty haha) I received on my 1st birthday celebration after I have popped into this crazy world.

Pink is my favourite color and was present on both birthday layouts (Dig for it in my Flickr...)
Another reason I did this layout was for a challenge over at my LSS's forum (http://madewithlove.com.sg/forum)

The challenge was to scrap a memorable event (yes, yours truly's 1st birthday celebration was a grand event with loads of gifts... and certainly memorable though I was too young to remember it... now that just totally reminds me of the power of photographs and scrapbook layouts - once we get old and senile, we can just open our scrapbooks and reminisce on past memories) and also to de-hoard your stash! Meaning, you have to painfully open that package of embellishments you have kept for months/years or cut that beautiful patterned pattern lying around on your scrap desk for ages and use them on this layout. Painful, indeed, but it was worth it!

After all the crap talk, I will just let the picture do the talking. After all, pictures are worth a thousand words. :)

*Click on image to enlarge!*

Any comments would be extremely appreciated! I don't intend to win since so many talented and fabulous scrappers have also submitted their layouts for this challenge, so I guess I just have to say bye-bye to that yummy RAK put up. :(

Oh well, results would be announced by tomorrow or latest this week, so fingers crossed!

xoxo.
S

Brewing...

2008-11-28T10:19:00.000-08:00

I am currently in the midst of some new creations. One's so girly.. (Scenic Route's Sonoma line, pink and yellow muted hues, floral...), and another's so boy-ish (Cosmo Cricket's Mr Campy line, marshmellow, blues, browns, torn and tattered edges)

Here's some sneak peeks!

Sneak peek 1 (the girly one!):

I'm currently stuck at this layout. I tried looking around sketch blogs, magazines and various scrapbooking inspiration sources and I can't seem to put my hand on where should I put the photos at and which embellishments I should put! Sad, huh?

Sneak peek 2 (the boyish one!):

I started off this layout much earlier so I am almost done with it. What's left is only the stitching... I was thinking of a slightly more eccentric kind of stitching, either zigzag or artisan label brackets... I have to reach out for the embroidery floss and needle!

xoxo.
S

NEW BG Release: Bittersweet!

2008-11-27T16:51:00.000-08:00

Was cruising around 2Peas' message board as usual, and I saw this long thread with almost 20 replies saying "YUMMY BG NEW RELEASE..." and I was having this mental note to myself "They are not talking about Wassail are they...?"

Boy, was I wrong, I clicked on that fateful thread and it brought me to some serious eye candy.

Behold, the mighty new collection from BasicGrey (probably considered as their Valentine's line)

Bittersweet

One look at the papers itself on the internet, I was already inspired to create something and a vision suddenly splashed into my mind on what I was going to create with those absolutely gorgeous papers. That has never really happened to me before. The papers literally speak to me. The colour combination of whites, pinks and browns are probably one of the best colour combinations on earth (especially for me, pink and white are listed as two of my favourite colours along with the shimmer of silver and the glamour of gold)

This ships mid-December to stores and I'm so gonna grab it once it comes on! All of you should too, before scrapping-desperados like me grab everything off the shelves, and you guys will live to regret it, ferrr sure! :P

Like how I wrote my reply on the message board thread itself, BG's really ingenious in creating a name for their collections.

Bitter, for I am going to spend my hard-earned allowance/money on to these masterpieces.
Sweet, for I am going to indulge myself into these masterpieces.

I could feel the bittersweet-ness building up inside me already...
xoxo.
S

Newest creationsss!

2008-11-27T16:22:00.000-08:00

Decided to post up this newest creation of mine which I didn't even realised I had already scanned in, just that I didn't upload it anywhere. :)

My very very very first attempt at stitching! I didn't even stitch on fabric before that. I just sort of fiddled around with the needle and the embroidery floss on this layout, so yeah, I'm sorry if my stitching looks really bad.

Well, after I had finished stitching up the layout, I read up a few tutorials on stitching and I found out I indeed messed around with my stitching. My stitching isn't... well 'authentic' if you would call it.

But well, I would consider it the "Shermin stitch" then! I can't seem to stitch the authentic ways they show on tutorials no matter I tried, so maybe I will continue with this non authentic stitching style of mine... :P

*Click on the image to enlarge it!*

Another layout I did. :)

Supplies list:
Alphas: AC Thickers
Patterned papers: Sassafras Lass, Creative Imaginations
Chipboard: Pink Paislee
Sticker: Creative Imaginations
Embroidery floss: DMC Blanc Floss

Any comments would be very much appreciated!
(I'm sorry if this LO looks cut-out, my scanner is only 11" and I really can't be bothered to scan that extra 1" at the side :P)

Have been feeling rather productive :D

2008-11-27T12:16:00.000-08:00

Status:
Completed 4 LOs (within 2 weeks).
2 more LOs in progress this week.

This might seems low production rate for most scrapbookers, but trust me, it could very well be the record for me. I usually only produce 1 LO per month, so yeah, this is really turning out into a pretty inspiring and productive peroid for me. :)

It's school holidays here in Singapore, which means that I will get to have a lot of free time compared to the hectic school hours once school starts again in January 2009. That reminds me that I better make use of the free time now before homework and exams start pouring in before I even realise it.

I will scan in the layouts and upload 'em to my Flickr/here as soon as I can! Been pretty busy lately so I didn't really have the time to do so...

Tata for now!

xoxo
S.

The "Playing with dandelions" layout... reveals!

2008-11-27T11:59:00.000-08:00

*Click to enlarge the image!*

This is the layout that inspired the title of the blog, just for trivial purposes, as mentioned in my first post on this blog about what inspired this blog's title. :)

Virgin post on this bloggg!

2008-11-27T11:50:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my new blog dedicated to only crafts/scrapping and everything else pretty.

My name is Shermin and I am just a young scrapper addicted to the world of visual arts, and I am from a sunny country, Singapore, where we enjoy summer all year-round.

It only occupies a small red dot on the globe, so don’t feel bad if you don’t really know about its existence.

The name ”Playing with dandelions” derived from one of the most recent layouts that I have done. It is my favourite layout to date and even the title of the layout appealed to me as well. Thus “Playing with dandelions was born”. I have previously placed all my scrapping interests and creations in my personal blog but since I kept my whole blog private, so my works have never really gone ‘public’. I have been scrapping since late 2007 till now, and I would love to share my creations and works with the rest of the world if possible.

Now that I have finished mentioning whatever I wanted to say, I hope you guys would enjoy this blog as I post about my crafty pursuits.