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.
This template is now available as a set in the store HERE