Interview

Today I took leave to bring Ryan to an interview at a prestigious secondary school, as part of his admission application. We have much mixed feelings about him applying to these schools, especially because of the stress of going through GAT tests, interviews, selection camps, and also about whether going to such a school is really necessary, or good for him? Right now we are taking the approach of letting him apply, and supporting him through it, while praying for the Lord to show His good and perfect will for him by opening or closing the doors.

In any case, it has been a growing process for him as he asks himself questions (in preparation) such as why do I want to go to such and such a school, what subjects would I like to study, he even brought along his social studies projects on ''homelessness" and 'nuclear weapons' to show. Here's the cover I did for him!

Before he went in I told him the best thing to do is to be honest about his answers, no need to try to impress. And guess what? When they asked him what are the qualities he has that got him selected twice as model student, his answer? " I really don't know! " Haha! That's my son, I'm sure they'll remember him! He did finally go on to describe what he thinks was the selection process. Great answer, don't you think? So proud of him! :)

I had been lending digi scrapping supplies for my children's many school projects. Here's a maths game project Jared did using the Yellow Submarine kit by Faith True. Cute, isn't it??Since I was on leave, had some time to complete a few more layouts. Here's shots taken around our hotel in Langkawi, so beautiful I had to make a layout just for them!
Credits: Background paper from Eclectic Designs by Gabi , tied string peg by Britt-ish designs, word tags by Chantal, Viewfinder and butterfly by Melanie Johnson.
And here's photos from an island-hopping boat trip we took. For some reason the boys did not inherit the love of the sea from me and dh (who dreams of diving with his sons one day), they are terrified of speedboats, the bumping off the waves, and generally grit their teeth every time we do boat trips. Still, they are improving, and this time they only had to close their eyes and braved it :) I'm sure those diving trips will be coming up soon!Credits: Background paper by Ginna Miller , tabs, "paradise"sign, stitching all by Dani Mogstad, word art by Sahlin Studio
The templates are in the store here

And here's one more layout from the boat trip in Langkawi, to watch eagles feeding - quite an awesome sight - sitting in the boat in silence, watching them swoop down and then up with such precision and stateliness.
Credits: Background paper by Kaye Winiecki, red string by Viva Artistry , string frame downloaded from Scrapartist Muse , alpha by Rachel Giallongo , acrylic element by Veronica Spriggs
Download this template here. BTW, do you take a lot of wide-angle shots like the ones in this template? On this trip, dh took a lot of such shots, I love them! So have been incorporating them into my layouts.

From Rested to Hectic

We're back from our trips, back to school, back to work, and boy, how quickly we went from rested to hectic! First we went to Langkawi, Malaysia, with the boys, and then took off to Bintan, Indonesia, just dh and me, for two nights, to enjoy couple time! This is our third trip in 15 years without the kids, and it was soooo good! Still by the third day we were really missing them and talking about them. When we got home, I told them how relaxing it was for us (not to mention rather romantic) without them around, and they said "same for us too!" LOL! How they wish we leave them alone everyday so they can read and play computer games all day long! :)

I know I should refrain from issuing orders at them all day long, and make sure they have enough down time and quiet time (without me hovering around) to just hang and dream, but it is so hard! Mothers are mothers and it's what we do! If you haven't watched this video of The Mom Song you must!! Tell me you didn't laughed till you cry by the end of it... :) I felt so much solidarity with all moms in the world, I am not alone!

Reply to Comments
There was a question on how to separate the double template and save them as left side and right side on my previous post : Please see this post here for some instructions on that, I would have included the same instructions in jpegs in the more recent template zip files too. Let me know if it doesn't help!

Now here's my layout for P365 of the week we spent in Langkawi, Malaysia. We're so blessed to be so near to tropical paradise! This layout is scraplifted from Becky Higgins' sketch and layouts in the August issue of Creative Keepsakes, love her sketches!! I don't think I should make a template out of it, but you can easily make it yourself, the two largest photos are 8x6, the two photos on the bottom left are 6x4, and the three photos down the right are 4x4. Everything will fit in perfectly on a 24x12 double page! A tip: For such layouts where the photos 'touch' each other without gaps or frames, choose photos that are distinct in colors/background to border each other so that they will stand out and pop. Conversely if I want to do a layout with lots of photos that are similar in colors or backgrounds ( like the beach layouts below) then I use frames to visually separate them.







Credits: Purple paper by Andrea Victoria, blue paper from Ohana by Brit-tish Designs

Next two layouts from our Langkawi trip - beach, beach, and more beach! We're beach bums alright! I have so MANY photos! Was in the mood for layouts entirely engulfed in photos, haha! The templates for these layouts are in the store here - thanks for looking!







Credits: Background paper by Faith True , twigs by Carol Abram, leaves by Seni, chalkboard alpha (modified) by Kate Hill.







Credits: Background paper, beach sign, and wooden frame from Ohana by Brit-tish Designs, sea shell from Yardbunny designs.


Now here another of my P365 layouts for the week before, I'm so happy I'm keeping up well with P365 so far, I absolutely enjoy it, and am totally looking forward to seeing it in a book by year end - hugs to whoever came up with this idea!!







Credits: Blue and Purple papers by Andrea Victoria from Designer Digitals' Challenge Gallery, love everything there! date strip by Brandy, numbers by Donna Duncombe, tag by Julie Marie, all downloaded from digiscrap addicts.




And here's the template for you - download here. And thanks for your lovely comments every time!

Rest & Relax

It's school holidays and time for some rest & relax! We're off to Malaysia tomorrow and will be back on Saturday, and may not get to go online, so if you email me or try to contact me, I'll respond when I get back.
On Friday night, dh and I went to catch some free Singapore Arts Festival fringe events. That was how our relationship started years ago, when we went to our first free Fringe events!! :) This time we caught this cute band from Korea (I'm sorry I don't know their name!) who were playing these upbeat Beatle era songs. The poor things were so good and everyone really enjoyed them. Then the lead drummer asked, "are you enjoying yourselves?" "Yes!" "Then why are you sitting down?" We all laughed. I guess being us we are a little shy and too self conscious to stand up and dance along, we had to laugh at ourselves, but still did not stand up! :) DH and I really enjoyed ourselves nevertheless, and I have it captured for my 365 album!

Completed two more layouts from Japan, the templates are in the store here. Thanks for looking!
This was actually a rainy day on which we could not get to any of the places we planned, and simply wandered around and had a really laid back kind of day.
Credits: Background paper by Kaye Winiecki, journal block by Jessica Sprague, title block by twoboyz00 designs, flowers by Creashens Designs
And yes, it's our third time in Disney in three years, we can't have enought of it, I guess! It's a bit of an embarassing fact that dh and I have actually been to all five Disney properties in the world - I know, we ought to be shot...it wasn't planned. The earliest times we were backpacking in Europe and on a shoe string trip in California, before kids. I will attest that our first time in Disney we were so, so bowled over and enchanted, more than our kids are at their first time, I believe. Our generation could appreciate things more, I think, because we grew up having so much less.... can you tell we're still enchanted?
Credits: Paper and mickey stamp by Nikki designs, bracket by Tracy Designs, and alpha by Britts, and paper tear by Sande Krieger
And two more 365 layouts!! This one is from a template by Mandagirl Creations - I love it so much I kept her color scheme and drawn stitches! You can get it from her blog here! Tell her I sent ya!

Credits: word art from Weeds & Wildflowers, template by Mandagirl Creations


Credits: Papers by Ksharonk and word art by Vera Lim


Download this to create here!
Freebies Announcement! (from my last post in case you did not see it)
I had forgotten to announce here that my folder on FileFront where I shared all my earlier free templates (template 36 and before) has been shut down due to inactivity. File Front wrote to me a week ago, and I've decided to let it be shut down. I took a look and most of the templates had been downloaded more than 2500 times! Hope you understand that I won't be posting them up again somewhere else. Too much work! :) I might put them all in a pack for a nominal sum in the store later on when I find the time. In the mean time, pls enjoy all the later freebies on 4 shared and Box net!

Actually I'm deciding whether to continue to share on Box Net (monthly fee required) or go back to 4 shared. Please download or tell your friends to download in the mean time!

Thank you for your interest and for joining me in this great scrapping hobby :)

Download links for Templates 36 & before

I had forgotten to announce here that my folder on FileFront where I shared all my earlier free templates (template 36 and before) has been shut down due to inactivity. File Front wrote to me a week ago, and I've decided to let it be shut down. I took a look and most of the templates had been downloaded more than 2500 times! Hope you understand that I won't be posting them up again somewhere else. Too much work! :) I might put them all in a pack for a nominal sum in the store later on when I find the time. In the mean time, pls enjoy all the later freebies on 4 shared and Box net!

Actually I'm deciding whether to continue to share on Box Net (monthly fee required) or go back to 4 shared. Please download or tell your friends to download in the mean time!

Thank you for your interest and for joining me in this great scrapping hobby :)

God is so Amazing

Last friday was meet the teachers day. I couldn't help it, my eyes welled up when R's teacher told us how he has blossomed since she last taught him two years ago, that he talks a lot more, has many friends, and is so well-liked, that when he is called up for presentation in class, everyone cheers ("roaring" is the word she used) whether he did well or not. What a complete turnabout from how he started school years ago! Considering his early difficulties, the years of speech therapy, and how painfully shy he was, this is just WoW.
We had gotten used to his recent fantastic progress, and once again as we look back, we see how God is really the Potter and we the Clay. How wonderfully the Potter can make something beautiful out of His clay, fashioned for His Glory, and for our blessing! Jeremiah 29:11 " For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Now let me share with you my latest Shutterfly book. I wanted to try Viovio this time, but was not confident about how to do the double pages, and then shutterfly came with a discount code, so I gave in to them again. This time I chose their new 8X8 soft cover. Because I only had 20 pages, it came really thin, but the color and texture are the same good quality stuff. I do like the soft cover for its more casual, modern, magazine feel, but for durability and for passing down to next generations :) definitely go for the hard cover.
Here's the front and back, I had to rush to make the shutterfly offer, so I simply chose two photos and use them as the cover, with a digiscrapping background paper for the 'binding'. Just remember to follow their cover dimension guides!
For the double pages in 8X8, I gave the same allowance adjustment down the middle as I did for the 12X12 pages, 3/8th of an inch, see more details in this post. They turn out quite right!
Now some more pages from my Japan trip, this album is coming along really slowly, I just work on it whenever I have time, it is really nice to relive the trip with my family as I go along. Here we are at this Volcanic Park on Hakone, freezing cold yet with hot spewing sulphuric fumes all over! Quite an experience, we must say, we wanted to go nearer, but there were all these warnings for asthma patients (of which 3 of us are) that we finally turned back, not before a few photos!
Credits: Background paper is from project 365 by Brandy Designs painted over by painted mat from Miss Mint's Painted Season . Paper leaves by Jessica Bolton , twine is from Gooddaysunshine by Megan Turnidge and flower is from project 365 by L Riches both from the SYTYCD at Digiscrapaddict! Finally paint brush for title is by Michelle Coleman .
This was the night where we decided to skip Tokyo Tower (too expensive!) for the Tokyo Government Buildings Observatory (free!) for great views of Tokyo at night.
Credits: Background is from layering purple dotted paper by Nina Scrap designs over black painted paper from 'Digital Designs by lisA'. Sparkly waves is also from 'Digital Designs by lisA'. Starry sparkly circle art is by Vera Lim, and alpha is by Brittish Designs
And here's a 12X12 page of our trip back from Hakone on the Lake Ashi.
Credits: Background paper by Heralds! Overlaid with paper from sampler 3 by Jennifer Howland , rope is by Erica Zane and star is by Gina Cabrera of Digital Design Essentials.
You can download the template here. Enjoy and thanks for your comments!

What did you do this week?

Well, all four of us went to watch the movie Star Trek which was so cool and fun, and Ryan looked like he is going to be a new generation Trekkie, we have visited a few secondary school Open Houses with Ryan who is due to start applications soon (a whole new world!), I attended a so sweet so special Mothers' Day celebration organised by Jared's class at school, Jared has been crazy about playing with dough, I received my latest soft cover photobook from Shutterfly(!), the boys had been bunking in our master bedroom because the air conditioning in their room has broken down, Jared just did his national physical tests - running today, and we have all these captured in pictures, ready to go into our 365 album for the year!! Yippee!!As you can see here, I wanted to see how my 365 pages look together and got a rush seeing them all together! I can just see and imagine how wonderful the year's album is going to be, and I'm all excited again, and very motivated! Hope these next few layouts motivate you too! Keep going, find the easiest way you can to scrap them, don't worry about the aesthetics of the layout too much, focus on the capturing of an entire year of your family and your life, and that album we're all going to have at the end of the year!I also loved Janet's post about 365 at The Daily Digi here - her photos are so inspiring! And I also found fantastic 365 layouts by Christine using my templates - which she has kindly allowed me to share here - thanks Christine!
Now have I motivated you enough to press on with your 365? :> Check out more of Christine's awesome layouts on her blog . I just found out also from The Daily Digi that she is one of the ladies behind DigiDare - love the site and their layouts - especially the ones that dares you to journal - i need to get more of those done!

And here are two more 365 layouts of mine, you can download both the templates for these at the bottom of this post.
Credits:All papers from Jackie Eckles' Write it down. Word art by Lynn Grieveson
Credits: Papers from white almond kiss by Amy Hutchinson, word art downloaded from ScrapGirls

Finally two more Japan layouts which templates can be found in the STORE thanks for looking!
Both are from the morning we spent at the Hakone Open Air Museum - a sculpture museum set on the hill of Hakone, a totally unexpected awesome place - I can't describe how much I loved it, (there was even a little hot spring where they let you soak your feet seated two by two on the grass with a towel, unfortunately we did not have time) - I decided to let the beauty of the pictures speak for themselves and set the photos in linear un-skewed manner in these two layouts. Finding the perfect elements took a bit more time but I think I nailed it finally. :>Credits: Paper by Zazou, Swirl from Creating Beauty by W&W, flower overlay by Corina Nielson, alpha by Traci King

Credits: Paper by Choubinette, Ribbon and 'a beautiful day' word art by Fanette, overlay by Lien, beautiful definition by Michelle Coleman

Here are the templates i used for my 365s.

Download them here. But don't just download them, use them!! :) And thanks for every comment - they are greatly appreciated!

Going slow

Oh, I've been going slowly recently, scrapbooking-wise. Just had to spend a lot more time with the boys lately to catch up on their work and prepare for their mid year exams. Ryan is very hardworking so I just need to work with him on approaching his revision in the smart way. Jared has had issues with motivation and I've had to sit beside him for hours daily for nearly three weeks now doing catch up - it's been tough for him (and me!) I'm happy to report he has put in a lot of effort and starting to feel good about his work again. As for me, my maths and science has improved significantly, it's all coming back to me! I may be as smart as a fifth grader soon! lol!

I couldn't believe it, but after years of online shopping, my credit card was frauded :( No idea how it happened, but for now I'm sticking to sites that accept Paypal only so I don't have to key in my card number anywhere. Has this happened to anyone of you?

Did managed to sneak in some shopping over NSD :) and got a few layouts out finally. For the next two layouts, I've intentionally tried to work with a white or near white background, for a change, and to bring out the colors in the photos. I find that this works really well if the multiple photos have many different colors in them, or the photos are dark colored or were taken in dark conditions. Try it! And I like putting in a border of some sort to 'ground' the layout.

Here's us wandering the streets of Harajuku - a teenage haunt and fashionable shopper's playground in Tokyo. We DID NOT fit in. Haha! But had fun anyway!
Credits: Background paper by Denise Docherty (adjusted brightness and contrast), alpha by Lili from ScrapArtist, painted buttons by BrentBoone, painted flowers by Carola Steedman and Miss Mint.
And in the evening of the same day, we made it to Shibuya, another super busy shopping area, we were suitably impressed at its famous super busy junction, the shopping was great of course!
Credits: papers by Ziggles, swirls by Sarah Robinson, dots by Kristen
As usual I've put these templates in the store

On the next few days of our trip, we went out of tokyo on day trips. Here is the first one spent at Hakone on its quaint 'zig zag' train.
Credits: background paper by Vinnie Pearce, sun motive by A work in progress by Vicki
Enjoy this template here! and thank you for your always wonderful comments!

Catching Up and Inspirations

A friend shared this video of a short film with me, and I shared it with my boys today. It's quite long (6 minutes) but worth every minute in its beautifully put message. Take a look if you have time. Poignant especially for my Jared who is such a fussy picky eater, in our land of abundance. They were both rather moved.

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

Life's been terribly hectic! Jared is falling behind in his work and has a huge backlog of homework, so a lot of time is now focused on that. It's hard, but he's been a trooper.
I'm falling behind in my layouts, and just managed to complete my 365 layout of two weeks ago. It seems my photos are mainly taken around our home, which is where most of our family time is spent, and home really is best! :)
Credits: Daydream patches by Brittishdesigns, Mojo Papers by Amanda Rockwell, abc jump papers by tiptoestudio, spotted paper by Jackie Eckles, Home word art by Krystal Hartley

Finally I'm going to share with you all the lovely, lovely layouts that have been shared with me, be blown away!

First, you must go and check out an entire album that the super talented Christie Hayes completed !!!
New Zealand Album
Here are three more breathtaking layouts by Christie!
And these two are by Cassandra Nelson - love her clean and striking style!
And here are two sweet layouts I picked from so many shared with me by Karen Mathre, thanks for sharing with us, Karen!
I do so love this birtyday layout by Honeybee!
And this is Erika's wonderful desktop layout
Finally two super disney layouts by my friend AnitaThank you so much for sharing your talents ladies, I greatly appreciate it, and you always make my day with the privilege of seeing my templates in such beautiful action!

And if it can be useful for you, this template can be downloaded Here !

A Strong Woman vs A Woman of Strength

Thanks to Linda, who found for us that the poem is by Luke Easter & Dee Cheeks, and there is a full version, which I re-produced here. I googled some more, and found this site where it seems Luke Easter posts his poems. Thank you Luke and Dee for blessing us so much with these words of spiritual wisdom.

A strong woman works out every day,
Pride in her appearance she portrays,
But a woman of strength kneels to pray,
Keeping her soul in shape, God leading the way.

A strong woman isn't afraid of anything,
Looking forward to challenges each day will bring,
Women of strength show courage in the midst of fear,
Knowing triumph through faith because the Lord is near.

Strong women won't let anyone get the best of them,
So skilled in defense even if they have to pretend,
Yet a woman of strength gives her best to everyone,
Being anointed with divine blood from the only begotten Son.

A strong woman relies on the physical attributes making her tough,
In her search for power and money she will never have enough,
A woman of strength understands that it’s not about material stuff,
Knowing that before becoming a diamond first she’ll be in the rough,

A strong woman sometimes disguises her feelings shadowed by clouds,
Unhinged when challenged on her policy becoming boisterous and loud,
A woman of strength concerns herself not with judgment from others,
And will not let business interfere with commitments as a wife and mother.

A strong woman is easily impatient back and forth she will begin to pace,
Counting on her holier than thou attitude instead of depending on faith,
A woman of strength is assured trust in God will always carry her through,
And at the Creator’s appointed time she’ll receive all that is justly due.

A strong woman makes mistakes and avoids the same for tomorrow,
Refusing to take time looking back with reverence and Godly sorrow,
The woman of strength realizes life's mistakes no matter how slim,
While thanking God for the blessings as she capitalizes on them.

A strong woman walks head first with no doubt in her mind,
Again, no matter what, she’ll not make this mistake a second time,
But a woman of strength knows God will catch her when she falls,
So when a situation arises again, she’s not afraid to answer the call.

A strong woman wears the look of confidence on her face,
Always doing whatever it takes to finish, seeking only first place,
The woman of strength competes with an emotional sense of grace,
Understanding it’s more important to run a Holy Spirit filled race.

A strong woman has faith that for the journey she’ll have enough,
No matter how uneven the terrain or roads being rocky and rough,
A woman of strength knows it’s in the journey she will become strong,
And the love of God is forever with her, no matter how difficult or long.

A strong woman when uninformed thinks that she is being mistreated,
In the end her physical attributes fail causing doubt to become seeded,
A woman of strength will compromise as a little give and take is needed,
Why? Because a lesson not learned the first time is soon to be repeated.

© 2006 by Luke Easter & Dee Cheeks
www.LyricsByLucas.com

Replies

How wonderful to hear from you all who are as blessed as me by the poem. Trac asked if I know who wrote it, I'm sorry I don't. My copy is printed from an email sent to me years ago by a wonderful colleague who has now gone to be with the Lord. But the blessing from that sharing continues! If anyone knows who wrote it, please let us know!

Someone also asked how I create my layouts. Well I always choose the pictures I want to use first and then adjust the sizes of each photo depending on whether I want to highlight some over others. Then I kind of play around, shifting them around until they look pleasing to the eye. And finally I tilt them around! No real method to the madness, lol! I do also keep some sketches in a notebook when ideas hit me. And I refer to it when nothing works on a particular layout. Yes it does happen to me too. :) When the photos are in place, I look for the background (the hardest part for me actually), and the elements, and then do the title and journaling, and I'm done!

How do you do your layouts?