Some Layouts to Share

Alrighty, some layouts to share before I post more of my San Francisco trip Day 2 onwards.

First Up for Pink Sketches:

For Sketch #44

For Sketch #45

And guess what? Kelli is having a Design Team Search! If you fancy sketches and love scrapbooking, we welcome you to come join us!

Hop on over to our Pink Sketches blog for more details!!

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Over at The Story Matters

This layout was delayed for Sept's challenge but I got it done anyway after recovering from a nasty cough and sore throat (I'm still recovering).

This month's challenge is all about your daily rituals and routines. To share them. So I just shared Daren's daily MUST-Have as part of his everyday routine.

Here it is:

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Here's the layout that I got done in Sunnyvale, C.A when I was over at Sarah's place:

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I'm slowly catching my groove back in scrapping ... but work now is taking precedence in my priorities after my family.

I was just sitting and thinking what to scrap for my DT assignments, yet at the back of my brain I keep thinking about my workload... and I realized that scrapbooking and blogging can become full-time jobs all on their own!!

I was totally amazed at how some people I know of are "speedsters"! They can churn out 4-5 in a day!!!

(Pssst! You know who you are *winks*)

I can sometimes sit at my scrap table for an hour or two, stare at my photos and supplies and have them stare right back at me! And at times, I still cannot get anything done!

LOL!

So I'm gonna pace myself and not get stressed out with my DT work... if need be, I will request for a sabbathical break or a step-down...whichever works best for everyone (DT owners and myself).

I'm grateful and thankful that Dorcas (MomentsRecorded) and Edleen (Groovie Covers) are graciously covering for me during this period of time. Though I feel bad towards them both - I feel as though I'm letting them down in one way or another, but their friendship and support are so precious to me.

In the meantime, thank you for still coming by my blog from time to time.

Whoever you are.

And stay tune for more updates on SFO and RAKs!!!!!

I'm gonna be going through my stash and start to pull out items to de-stash!

Coz I'll be moving house in a couple months time and I seriously need to lessen my moving load.

How about this? Add yourselves as followers to my blog if you haven't already and to double your chance for winning a RAK, leave me a comment with the following:

1) Who you are and where you're from

2) Your blog addy (if any, so that I can leave you some love)

3) What you like about my blog/scrapbooking works.

Isn't that simple?

I think it's a fun way of getting to know you my fellow scrapblog friends!

International friends are welcome to join in too!

So join my blog and leave me some love by 20th Sept 2009 - 1159hrs Singapore Time!

*hugz*

Sophia

Happy Birthday Singapore and Pink layouts

Hey everyone! How are you all doing?

Yesterday, Singapore celebrated her 44th birthday!

Happy Birthday Singapore!!

Both David and I were impressed with yesterday's National Day Parade (which we've been watching since kids) and I think that this is by far the best NDP show ever!

And it's a no wonder, Ivan Heng is this year's Creative Director and I totally love how the usual national day songs were put together in a lovely medley ala musical style!

There's a great showcase of the diversity in Singapore's culture - an electic mix of races and culture that makes up Singapore.

When we were to say out pledge together as a nation at 20:22 last night, David and I had tears and conviction to our eyes. Sounds too corny but it's really true. There's unity in what we do as a nation.

Truly this is the place where we call home. The place where we grew up with family and friends. The country in which David and I met and got married and started our home and adding to its number.

A place of comfort and safety - familiar with its surroundings and how things work.

At times, we might not agree entirely with the policies or the decisions made for the country, but we know that no matter what, we are proud to be Singaporeans.

:)

Once again, I love you Singapore!!

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This week over at Pink Sketches is Sketch #40.

I did 2 layouts this time round. Really simple layouts with Kraft Cardstock!

Title: Me Likey Ice-Cream
Journalling: You totally love the soft ice-cream in a cone from Ikea - your favourite hang-out with Nana. You can totally have an ice-cream cone all to yourself!! Love, Mummy.

Supplies: Bazzil Kraft Cardstock, SassafrasLass papers, Imaginisce Papers, American Crafts Thickers

Title: Pox of the Matter

Journalling: Twenty Seventh May - You started to break out in watery blisters on your thigh and the small of your back. Before we know it you were covered from head to toe. Praise God that you didn't have fever or any other discomfort.

Supplies: Bazzil Kraft Cardstock, My Little Shoebox papers, SassafrasLass papers, American Crafts Thickers, Making Memories Tiny Alphas and October Afternoon Cardstock Sticker Alphas.

I do hope you like my layouts...I'm feeling somewhat "rusty" after not scrapping for nearly 2 months!

Do come by Pink Sketches and play along with us yah?

Layouts to share this week

Over at DreamGirls for the 2nd part of the month, is an awesome challenge.

I'll bet it's perfect for that summer holidays that everyone is enjoying right now!

The challenge (off the DreamGirls blog):

Prompt: We want to see action photos

Twists: Use either Pink and orange or blue and orange on your layouts

Technique: Doodling

Having trouble with the whole action photo idea? Well, what about sports photos, a first dance perhaps, summer water park fun or even twirling in the summer grass.There is so many cool action shots you can take, and its a great way to remember those "fast pace" moments in your life.

Here's my layout:

Photos were taken recently on Mother's Day in May. Our family had a gathering at my aunt's condominium and Daren had an awesome water-play time at the kiddies' pool.

If you have some exciting action shots to share, be sure to play along with us over at DreamGirls! And to check out the awesome layouts that the rest of the DT did!

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Over at Pink Sketches,

Kelli will be having the sketch on a fornightly basis due to the summer vacations that everyone is having.

And here's my layout.

Title: Bangkok Alley

Journalling: Where - BKK Alleyways near Baiyoke Sky Hotel. With - Daren, David, Sophia. Notes - We saw a man walking with a baby elephant hawking peanuts!!

Supplies: All from Scarlet Lime Dec 2008 Kit: Papers - Making Memories, SEI and Chatterbox, Alphas - American Crafts, Embellishments - OneBrightSpot Calender Tag, Sassasfrass Chipboard Sticker, American Crafts Travel Button, Chatterbox Felt and buttons from Scarlet Lime Kit.

Do come over and have some fun with the sketch!

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Up next is for MomentsRecorded.

The challenge is to use the sketch as provided for by Dorcas, and you need to use at least one color from your photos for your patterned paper.

I mirrored the sketch and used the color yellow from the background of balloons as seen in the photo. I kept the layout simple and uncluttered.... like how I normally scrap nowadays.

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Thanks for stopping by and looking at my layouts! It never fails to brighten up my day to see fellow scrappers drop by and say, "Hi!" and I often would love to hop right back to your blog and drop some love too. :)

Dave is slowly recovering from chicken pox. I really thank the Lord that at least his fever has subsided and the poxes doesn't look as angry as it did last week. He's still recovering, waiting for the poxes to be dried up and the scabs to drop off on their own.

In the meantime, he's so happy relaxing at home, watching his NBA matches via cable and all the TV-shows series on DVDs i.e. LIFE..

I've been busy entertaining Daren. Fetching him around (since I'm car-sitting for my uncle whose away), bringing him to places on my own.

For the first time, I brought Daren to the zoo last Saturday, on my own. Funny how friends would say that I'm so brave to do it on my own and Dave was a little concerned that if I could handle him alright on my own without our live-in helper.

I did and we, Daren and myself, enjoyed ourselves tremendously, having a wonderful mother-son bonding time. And mind you, for a 3.5 year old sitting in a booster seat behind me, could possibly be a challenging thing, but my boy really make this mama proud! I had a really cute encounter with him in the car with this conversation:

(whilst I'm driving)

Daren: Mummy, is this the way to the zoo?

Me: Not yet darling. We need to put petrol in the car before we can get to the zoo.

Daren: Noooo.... cannot. We must go to zoo

Me: But with no petrol, we will get stuck on the road and cannot go to the zoo.

Daren: Ok... we must drive to the jungle and then the zoo

(he associates the road to the zoo through the"forested" looking area as a jungle)

Daren: *starts to sing "Doe a deer" till we reached the zoo*

And after our trip to the zoo and right after I parked the car at our home's parking lot, my little buckaroo unbuckled himself, came forward to the driver's seat and told me:

Daren: Thank you mummy for bringing me to the zoo

*puts a kiss on my lips*

Thank you mummy for bringing me to see my elephants!

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww.....

My heart just melted and I really was touched by his gesture.

That really sealed my day! It made my day! It makes parenting (with all that blood and sweat) really all worth while!

Doesn't it? :)

Have a great week ahead!

Let's Catch up!

This week over at DreamGirls is a card challenge!

In support for our Card Designer Eva who have been designing fabulous gorgeous cards btw! We had a card sketch from 2Sketches4you

The twist?

Stamping technique and diecuts to be included.

Here is my card:

The materials other than the cardstock and faux pearls are from my Scarlet Lime March Kit.

Be sure to check out what the other Divas did! Their cards are fanta-bu-lous!!

Do remember to load your cards onto DreamGirls Flickr Group!

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Over at The Story Matters.

Our Fabulous and uber talented Megan Klauer is hosting this month's challenge!

It's very simple. We had to share our favourite summer memory. And the best summer memories I had was in Perth Australia.

I did a 2-pager for this one:

Do come over and give us your support for this month's challenge yah?

I'm sure you have some awesome summer memories to share with us!

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Something for Pink Sketches, Sketch #35

Here's my layout on a photo taken last July at my cousin's wedding.

It's a group shot of all the cousins in my generation on my mom's side of the family.

I placed the layout into a Clear Scraps 12 x 12 Frame for my Uncle and Aunt to take back to Perth (they were in town recently and just flew home) to be placed in their home.

I started using my Little Yellow Bicycle Paper Stash that I had in the beginning of this year. :)

Simple but lovely! Don't ya think?

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For Groovie Cover-It Challenge this month.

Groovie Edleen chose this book cover:

Here is my layout inspired by the cover:

Gotta love me some Sassafrass lass!!!! Yay!

Be sure to check out the Groovie Cover Challenge Blog and look at the rest of the Cover Gals' works! I love the different takes on this one.

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Last but definitely not least.

I've been honoured over at Ed's Sketch blog as her Guest Designer this month. (Thanks Ed for the honor!)

A double-paged Sketch! (I really think Ed must have Sketched this layout for me! haha!)

So I did a layout for my Ferguson Valley experience in Perth here:

I hope you like this double paged I did. It's more photo heavy than anything else!

Be sure to check out Ed's Sketch Blog! The DT did such an amazing job!

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##Some Updates and a RAK Giveaway##

It's been a field week the past 6 days!

No doubt I was busy with Daren, but I was really happy doing it and entertaining him at home to distract him from the itchiness of his Chicken Pox. I feel the bond between my boy and I much much closer than before. It's really a difference as compared to being at work and so caught up with work that I lack the energy to actually spend playing and nuturing him when I get home at the end of the day.

How I long for the day that I can dedicate my time to my boy and my home!

Good news too!

We had a buyer for our home! The advertisement was out on last Thursday and by Saturday, we had a keen and confirmed buyer! The Option to Purchase was signed that night (it was their 3rd time back at the house, they came back a 2nd time with their parents to view the place in the early evening). I'm so glad that the couple is in love with the concept of our home :) I must add that this isn't possible without the Grace and Favor of our Lord Jesus! Not only that, we are able to sell the house above valuation! Imagine that! This is really His favor and goodness in our lives and to God be all the glory!!!

In the meantime, we'll be taking our time to look for an ideal home that's comfortable for our budget. I'm so glad that Dave and I took the time and sit down and work out our sums for the new home. What's the budget for a possible future single income, etc etc.

I just pray that the Lord will lead us into our Promise Land, in this case, a cosy home to grow our Chan family.

Thanks for dropping by today and staying on to the end of this post and I'm in such a delightful mood, I'm gonna dig out some of my treasured scrapbooking possessions of lasered chipboard and papers and little bits and pieces for a RAK!!!

**To double your chances of winning**

1) simply spread the word on your blog and link your blog together with your comments in my comments section.

(I would love to blog hop and visit your blog too!)

Just leave me a comment in this posting for a chance for a RAK by 10th June!!

Love,Sophia

Pink Sketches #33

Over at Pink Sketches is Sketch #33:

Here's my layout:

Supplies: Bazzil White cardstock, Patterned papers from: Cosmo Cricket, Imaginisce, Been There Done That, K.I memories laced cardstock. Rub-ons: Been There Done That and Glitz Designs.

This is for my Perth Trip Travel Album :)

It's actually became another double page layout. after I submitted my layout to Kelli!

LOL!

I had some leftover materials from the original layout and used those for the other page since I have more photos taken at the same location.

Am I gonna show the other side of the page?

Hmmmm.... when I'm feeling a little more diligent in taking the layout out of the album!

haha!

In the meantime, do play along with us over at Pink Sketches k?

I'm here!

Is it mid-week already??

I'm so tired and tied up that I didn't realize that it's already mid-week!

I'm more tired actually... feeling a little slow and lethargic and I've been trying to up my energy levels by doing some evening brisk walking past couple of days.

Anyway, just to share my layout for Pink Sketches, for Sketch #32:

Title: Counting Blessings

Journalling: It was a little pre-bday surprise for you by your GrandAunt Cindy. It was a little chocolate brownie cake just for you. You were really pleased and your eyes were transfixed on the lil' cake instead of looking at the camera. All your fav. Uncles and Aunties celebrated with you for your 3rd birthday. Photos taken 5th Jan 2009.

Supplies: American Crafts - Papers, rub-ons and Thicker Accents, Tim Holtz Adage Tickets, 7-Gypsies Gaffer Tape, Heidi Swapp Blings, Making Memories Clipboard clips and Maya Road Sheer Journalling Tag.

Thank you all for dropping by and leaving some lovely comments for me. It really made my day! You don't have to but you wanted to and I'm really glad!! :)

I'll check in later for some more updates (hopefully).

Pink Sketch #31

Over at Pink Sketches this week is Sketch #31:

Here's my layout:

{Capturing the moment of affection}

Some details:

Journalling: It's the little things, that touch of affection & love, expressed in the form of hugs & kisses that makes our relationships richer & much more memorable. Always remember your affections for Mamah & how much she dotes on you.

(Mamah is a term used to addressed your paternal grandma)

Supplies: DCWV papers, Hamblys Birdcage paper, Maya Road Sheer Journalling Tag, Prima Marketing Say It with Crystals and felt alphas, Basic Grey Chipboard Alphas, 7-gypsies Themed stickers, Fancy Pants Rub-Ons and Making Memories Memo Clip.

Do come by and play along with us yah? And also see what my other design team members had come up with!

Send your layouts in the Kelli to be added into the gallery at kelli11181984@mac.com.

Remember to include My layout for Sketch #31 in your heading!

Slow Mojo Slowly coming back to me, Scrap Table

Hey all!

How's everyone doing? It's been a long slow weekend for me.

I finally got back into a scrappy mode on Friday, did a couple of layouts for some DT work.

=)

And my highlight for last week?

My long awaited "scrap" table came in from Ikea!!

Yay!

Thanks to my darling Dave, he's willing to "sponsor" this Gateleg Table from Ikea

How cool is that??!! I like that it's collapsable on both sides so that I can stow it away at a corner of my study area and that it has 6 drawers for storage of some tools/embellishments! Now I can organize and store my items in an easily reached area. Think I'm gonna use my Dymo Tape Writer and label which drawers contains what items.

Thank you darling!!

Anyway,

over at Pink Sketches this week is Sketch #30.

Here is the my layout for this week's Sketch:

{3 Goats Gruff & Daren @ 16 months}

As you can see I used minimal patterned paper. I played with my Ranger Distress Crackle Paint for the borders and added 2 strips of Sassasfrass Lass Bungle Jungle range of papers as well as its oh-so-cute chipboard Stickers!!

I found some older photos of lil Daren at the pre-renovated KidsWorld at the Singapore Zoo when he was 16 months!! Sigh... time really flies and he's such a baby still at 16 months!

I like this layout, simple but colorful!!

Coincidentally, this layout is also done for MomentsRecorded Challenge #7 :)

Do take time to come play along with us over at MomentsRecorded.

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I've been in a scrapping rut lately. I feel really tired out to be able to scrap anything.

I'm not sure if I might be "burning out"...or it could be plain tired out physically thus affecting my mojo.

But nonetheless, by the grace of God, my mojo's slowly coming back to me. I think partly because I know Dave is back home from his work trips and he could help me care for Daren at night.

May my layouts continually give glory all to the Lord as it reflects His goodness in our lives time and time again. :)

I hope to be able to do some more non-DT related layouts!

I still gotta finish up somemore of my Perth trip layouts! It's coming May very soon and I hope to be done by then! Not to mention a smaller 8 x 8 mini album from Making Memories' Passport Range for my MIL!

Will catch up with you all soon!

Love,

Sophia

Picturesque Post

This week over at Pink Sketches. Here is Sketch #29:

Here is my layout:

Description: I did this for my god-daughter, Jayda. She's such a cutie! I used part of the K.I Laced cardstock as a mask when I glimmer-misted the white cardstock. I smeared Stickles over the laced cardstock as well as the alphas to give it a slightly textured look.

Supplies: Papers - Bazzil Cardstock, K.I Memories Laced Cardstock, Making Memories Flower Patch, Imaginisce, Alphas -American crafts Thickers, Making Memories Tiny Alphas, Embellishments - Tim Holtz Philosophy Tags, Making Memories Ribbon Trims and Buttons

Do come over and play along with us for this week's sketch.

Do remember to email your entry to Kelli yah?

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I had a really long (and tiring) but fulfilling weekend.

Dave travelled and still is travelling for work and he was back home for about 24 hours before he flew off again.

We went for some dim sum at Yum Cha at Chinatown.

Totally YUMZ!!!!!

I like that for the price we paid, it's really nice and not overtly expensive!

We were too hungry...so I didn't take much pictures in the dim sum restaurant.

BUT.

I did take some photos of the nice and brightly coloured shophouses.


Love the colour of this shophouses!

You gotta love the assortment of colours here too!

Here's like a lane of shops to attract tourists to get some souvenirs.

Then off we went to the Marina Barrage to meet up with Dorcas and her daughters, and my good friends with my god-daughter. We thought it would be good to bring them there for some water-play in this hot weather.

I'll let the photos do the talking here :)

Here's inside the gallery :

A Huge "Wall" made up of plastic drinking bottles

Levion

A happy and bouncing boy

Here is outside at the water-playground:

Jayda

Levion

Daren

(it's so hard to take a nice picture of him here, He keeps facing his back away from me)

A slightly better shot (but his face is not looking into the camera)

Kerris getting a dip with her little feet.

Can you see that Kerris is one contented baby?

One of my favourite pics of the day

(despite that it's not the most ideal "composition")

There's still a bit more photos to share. I'll do so when I find the time to load up the 2nd part of it.

In the meantime, have an awesome week!

Happy Easter!!!

Pink Sketches is back with Sketch #28:

And here are my layouts:

(I did an extra layout to cover for dear Sarah)

Journalling: This is our family's 1st time to the Singapore Flyer on 14th Feb 2009. We became Friends of the Singapore Flyer.

Supplies: Paper - American Crafts, Alphas - American Crafts and Prima Marketing, Buttons - Sophia's own

Journalling: This is your first meeting with Levion for a playdate at the zoo. Both of you were taken to each other instantly.

Supplies: Paper - Sassafrass, Alphas - American Crafts, Tim Holtz Adage tickets, Dymo Tape and Buttons - Sophia's own.

I'm having a ball of a time playing with those Sassafrass papers! I'm hooked! In fact, for the {Playdate} layout, I like the behind pattern so much, I'm working on doing another simple layout on the back too! These gorgeous double-sided pattern papers can't be wasted!

Will share the back layout once it's completed!

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How was everyone's Easter weekend?

Mine was rather packed and then, I have the onset of a nasty cold coming my way now.

My family was off to the zoo on Good Friday and we arranged to meet up with Dorcas and family too. It was also a playdate for both our older kids, for them to interact. They were so cute together!!!

Daren was quite friendly towards Levion, and well, Levion took sometime to warm up to us all. But once she warmed up, she's a really warm and friendly lil' girl!!!

It was crazy crowded at the zoo I tell ya! The queues were snaking but Dave and I decided that we would renew our Friends of the Zoo membership and so we did! (It helped that the Q for that was shorter as compared to the regular entrance tickets Q).

We reached at 10.15am... we finally got in at 12pm! Even the Little Tykes Explorer Wagon had a wait list! So being the typical, sensible a.k.a kiasu Singaporean that I am (kiasu = scared to lose out, loosely translated), I left my name on the waitlist for a wagon so that we could ferry the pre-schoolers around. It was a good thing I did that as half and hour later, they called me and I had an available wagon! When I got to the counter, there was an Indian man demanding why can't he have the wagon as he was back there twice! The service staff politely told him that this is because I had placed my name on the wait list. Then again... I remembered having to ask the staff what was the clipboard they were holding to for... and I had to ask if I could be on the wait list.

The wagon was a good rental investment! The lil' ones enjoyed sitting in it and getting pulled around.

We didn't get much pictures this time round though while walking around. But we did get some cute shots of the little ones in their wagon!

Then there was the waterworld at the Kidz' Rainforest area. But our poor babies didn't get wet much and it started to drizzle/rain! Everyone was making a beeline for the limited shelter spaces. Daren and Dave continued playing in the rain ( since Daren is wet anyway, Dave reasoned.)

I could see and tell that Daren was really enjoying himself! Levion had to be out of the rain as she had just recovered from a bout of fever not too long ago. But she was really concerned about Daren and kept asking to "find" him. So I brought her out once she's dried and dressed, with an umbrella of course. So we stood in the rain with an umbrella watching Daren running around the waterplay area. But soon, the drizzle got heavier and heavier into a potential downpour, I had to get Dave to bring Daren out of the waterplay to dry him up. Gosh, we're so NOT going to let his grandparents know that we allowed him to play in the rain, else we (the parents), will get an earful from his grandmothers!!!

Our Friday ended on a wet note.

Weekends came and we spent our weekends recuperating from Friday!

LOL!

But we had some nice family time with Dave's mom to celebrate her birthday (in advance as Dave will be out of town) on Saturday at a restaurant nearby our place. I had to ask Dave to convince his mom not to cook and to keep the prepared dishes back into the fridge (we would be back at her place for dinner on Sunday instead) with the help of Daren's asking her in his limited Cantonese.

I mean, it's her birthday!!! Don't let the birthday gal do the cooking. Bring her out and pamper her with some family lovin!!!

She was a really happy lady on Saturday night. =)

Indeed the bliss and warmth of family gatherings really leaves wonderful memories in our hearts! It's these little things that we do to show that we care, even though we have to "insist" and "convince" our loved ones to do so. At the end, happy memories are what lingers behind!

Don't you agree?

Pink Sketches #27

This week's Pink Sketch #27:

Here's my layout, and yes another double-paged layout:

(Woohoo!!!! I'm on a double paged roll!)

THe new CHA released Prima Flowers.

I thought it's a perfect touch for that hot/dry summer we had in Perth.

Journalling: 27th Dec 2008 - Off we went to the Swan Valley area where Caversham Wildlife Park was. We packed our own lunch & went to see the various MARSUPIALs unique to Australia. It's a fun, fun day but really hot & warm with flies!!

Supplies: Cardstock: DCWV, Patterned Papers: Kaiser Scrapbook, Been There Done That, Flowers: Prima Flowers, Buttons: designer's own, Alphas: Autumn Leaves Clear Stamps Freestyle Alphabet, Journal Tags: Label Tulip Stamp and Scarlet Lime Remember Stamp.

Do come over and play along with the Pink Sketch girls and remember to submit your layout to Kelli at kelli11181984@mac.com :)

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I had some time over the weekend and did 2 non-DT related layouts.

One was on Daren's recent Pirate Themed party, I recycled his invitation card as part of his layout and recycled some parcel string as well on this layout.

Here it goes:

Some hidden layer below the Basic Grey Archaic pp.

The party invitation, lovingly made by Liza Yet for her son, Aaqil.

Some stiching done here.

I love the crystal skull! Really cute touch!

I used some Tim Holtz Hitch fasteners too and philosophy tags as well

(yup, some new stash to play with).

Here's another page with some "new" K.I memories papers:

(in my stash that is)

We were at the goats' enclosure within Caversham Wildlife Park where children get to go in and feed the animals. Daren was really excited on this one and he got to feed the goats. He was surrounded by lots of goats and some sheep!!

I kept this layout simple and plain.