Sponsor in October Digi Files!

October Digi Files

I'm very honored and happy to be back as a Sponsor in October's The Digi Files! The Daily Digi has been a great partner and also resource for me, Steph, Janet, Katie and Wendy are such wonderful ladies who have given me opportunities, taught me a lot, and do a great job there. I'm subscribed for years to The Digi Files myself - a great value to try out lots of different designers and styles! In fact, if you look closely, most of my monthly P365 layouts uses embellishments from that month's Digi Files - I tend to use the latest kits as soon as I get them :)

This is my contribution to this month's Files:

Also check out the other awesome designers sponsoring this month!

This set coordinates with set 449 that is a subscribers' only freebie. 

Next month both kits will be in the store. 

Mini Travel Album template

I haven't posted these layouts, so here they are:

Taipei 228 Memorial Museum (journaling reads):

today we visited the Sun Yat Sen memorial in the morning, and then the 228 museum which remembers the 228 masacre incident in Taiwan’s past. So much to understand about this part of their history. Both haunting and touching, and leaves you wandering how it could have been different. In the afternoon we visited the SunHo paper museum where we got to try our hand at making paper taught by this sweetest young lady. Perfect day!

MaoKong (journaling reads):

This day started with a thrilling ride over 4 km and up 300m in a clear bottom gondola. We scared each other silly and played our scenic taidi challenge all the way. At the hilltop is the  tea plantation village with quaint tea houses and lots of walks. But first the boys were cold and craving for cup noodles which we had in the seven-eleven! We stopped for local goodies and later after our walk had another sumptious late lunch/tea at a beautiful teahouse, that’s what you do at Maokong! 

Huashan 1914 Creative Park and Red House :

Huashan park was  an old factory converted to art park, the Taiwanese have loads of indie/independent creative talents and their designs are cool and interesting! We also visited SongShan part and it is full of the same. Later I found this exhibit in the Red House at XiMenDing which chronicled the history in which the  RedHouse has gone through, from being a market, and community centre, factory, Japanese headquarters, to it’s present day gig as a artsy hangout, just what I love!

Miniatures' Museum: 

The boys did one for this mama by visiting this miniatures museum with me. It was delightful! Full of dollhouses that were historical, not to mention beautiful and amazing to detail! They represented various ages from 1800s to present, and depicted daily life of working class and the rich, street scene, and also historical homes! What a collector’s dream and so wonderfully preserved. Totally amazing !

 We booked all our accomodations through AirBnB this time, and it was great! Much cheaper than to check four of us into two hotel rooms, and we get to have more space, living area and sometimes being located in fantastic locations. We are Air-BnBing for all our trips from now on!

Taiwan Album

No matter how many times this has happened, I'm over the moon every time a new photo book arrive in the mail. My Taiwan Shutterfly photobook arrived this week!

And I made a video flipping through to show you all the pages 

I made a blunder in the album - can you spot it?

Hint: It's towards the end of the video :)

I just love how the cover turned out!!

The cover template is a free download - check right sidebar for the link.

Now for a closer look at the pages inside. 

Everything popped against the black background!

How I prepare double pages for printing

Now I know some printers offer lay flat books, and Shutterfly offers a feature where you upload double pages as is and they do the splitting, but I have not tried them myself. So I just want to share how I prepare these double page layouts for printing. For more information you can also refer this post.Printing Double Pages on Shutterfly

This is the original double page on my computer.

Here you see I have adjusted it by moving the photos/elements/words, and created a 2 cm gap between the elements on the left and right sides

Then the page is cut up to (saved separately as) left page and right page for uploading to Shutterfly. This is to give allowance for the part of the page that will fall into the middle of the book - the gutter. Once the book is bound the allowance will ensure the elements do not get cut from view and will appear nicely laid out. You may need to do similar adjustments with other printers if it is not a lay flat book. 

And this is the same page printed!

Did you spot the blunder I made?

Well it was in the spine: It wasn't until I got it back and my friend pointed it out.

December 2015???!! It's okay, we had a good laugh :)

Double Page London Pages

I continue to chug on with my 'artsy quirky' themed London album. It's a great joy coming back to it every month. I had more time this month and spent longer playing with them. Especially the Churchill War Rooms page below:

The Churchill War Rooms: (Journaling reads:)This was a highlight of our trip for sure. 

A massive underground office that was used for 6 years during the war. Heard interviews of old people who worked here then - wow war is real. There was the Map room - lots of maps all over the wall - many pin holes especially over the Atlantic Ocean where the naval ships were  trying to avoid German Bombers. The phones, many typewriters, old ways of communicating - so tough! We loved the audio guides that included speeches and diary entries of Churchill and his commanders. At the CHurchill museum - we were fascinated - he was quite a man. We enjoyed a moving digital display of the Ups & Downs of his career - and one of the falls was the Fall of the fortress of Singapore! His quotes were awesome - what wit and foresight and wicked humour! I liked that he was devoted to his wife & family, saying the most brilliant thing he did was “to persuade my wife to marry me.”  We bought a book of his quotes at the shop home. A most brilliant time getting to know this great man in this historical war rooms of the WWII. 

London Churchill War Room Layout

Wallace Collection: This is a Museum of the collections (Biggest single family collection) from 5 generations of the Wallace family. We zoomed in on the amazing collection (one of the best in the world) of Armoury. Of course the boys especially Ryan was super impressed. There were so much armoury - from Indian, Chinese, Japanese, to lots of Medieval. They were huge and heavy and massive. How do they fight in them? There was even a complete horse armour! Even the chainmail was impressive up close (to me). Definitely worth the trip!

The Monument: It’s built by Sir Christopher Wren to remember the great fire. The height it lied down, is directly to the bakery shop from which the fire started! The view is almost completely taken over by newer buildings now. How did they build something like this? It’s the tallest pillar-like observation tower in the world it seems. We even got a certificate each for the climb!

Covent Gardens: What great atmosphere here - lots of buskers, music, especially loved the quintet, magic, jugglers, ... markets and shops were nearly closed, but still squeezed some shopping out of it - got a chopping board and some star wars weapons playing cards! 

These set of four templates are available in the store Thanks for looking!

Free Sample Templates

And these are the first and last pages in my album. First page includes a map with where we covered in Taiwan, photos or grandma sending us off in the airport.

Last page covers the photo of Daddy using his now lost camera (along with all the photos he took on the trip) - and the accompanying story.

And here are templates 467 and 468 for you to play with!

Download them here