Home is where the heart is.

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

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!

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!

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!

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.

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'? :)

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