Catching up

Just want to appreciate everyone who helped to give your feedback in the previous post on how you print double pages and how you find the results. It was so helpful! I guess it is inevitable that if you print it into a photobook, some of the middle part is going to be 'hidden' from view, so one way is to avoid putting important photos or face shots right there, I'll bear that in mind as I continue designing the pages.

Before I go on, here are some lovely work by wonderful ladies who allowed me to show them here; the first is by Amy Palmer, and the second by Susii Carter, thank you ladies. It's such an honour that you all used these templates of mine, to such lovely results :)



More replies to some of the comments and questions left for me, sorry i took so long, am consolidating them at one go :)
To Erica who asked me where I went on holiday, it was to Pulau Rawa, it's great if you love the beach and nothing but the beach!(wink)(address is www.rawasfr.com)
To Jody who asked 'if your method works for the DP with shutterfly', do you mean the photobooks, and if so, check two posts ago for the many comments. Hope that helps.
To Jess, i'm afraid I could not link to your homepage to see your page, could you leave a link?
To Zuraz, all the previous templates in the archives of the blog are still available, are you able to download from filefront?
To Susan, I do not have round templates yet, but thanks for the idea, I only do templates that result from my own layouts, a rule I'm keeping so that scrapping my own photos remain my priority, but I'll keep that in mind!
And to KimB, I'm sorry, I do not know how I can accept any other form of payment except Paypall as I live in Singapore, I hope that's alright, there's lots of free templates in the archives you can use, thanks so much for asking!
To Sarah G, I'm so sorry you faced the problem with Shutterfly's free book offer, I was terribly afraid of that too, but somehow my free offer went through smoothly. I uploaded all my 12x12 layouts as jpegs onto the photobook, and they did not consider it a 'premium' book. Thanks for the headsup, next time I'll be extra careful too.

It's always great to hear from all of you, amazing really, to think we have this great hobby and lots of other things in common, you're all wonderful to share with, and I hope my creativity keeps up, with lots more to come! Tomorrow I've got to be up at 6, so goodnight, everyone!

Lots of Layouts!

Shutterfly gave me a push this week with a 'free' 20 page book offer, did you get it? Well, I have 15 pages already done, and rushed to make another 5 pages all in 2 days! I'm happy to catch up on my non-US trip layouts, enjoyed making these, so much fun to do more light-hearted layouts for a change.
Here's us at our newly renovated local Museum and this was a wall for trying your hand at 'installation art' - cups, spoons, the boys had lots of fun!
Credits: Background paper, staple and stitching from Ksharonk’s Juicy Bonus, doodled stickers and word art line doodle, and word arts by Emily Powers

Same day at the Museum, the Greek Masterpieces exhibition, dh was mesmorised, the boys disappeared quickly, after comments and giggling about 'nude statues', and dh had a chance to explain and show me the beauty before us.
Credits: Background papers from Callypso Papers by BabyCakeScraps, and from Memory maker by VeraLim. Cardboard rip template by Michelin Martin, staple by Ksharonk, (I can’t recall where the journaling tag is from, will come back and add it in when I figure it out, sorry!)

Here's a story I wanted to do for a while, and finally did about this dresser or chest of drawers that has been with me for twenty years, it's from Ikea, by the way, if you're reading this, Angie! If you look closely at the heavily pregnant me, the left arm was in a cast from my fall I told you about. :P Here's the journalling: This dresser was mine since I was in my teens. I remember it was from Ikea and I got it because I’d wanted somewhere to keep my stuff and write letters and such. When I married it came with us and when we were expecting Ryan we sponged the teddy bears and rocking horse onto it. we loved it. Over the years Ryan used it and it started falling apart. We hung onto it bec it was so hard to let it go! Last week, I saw renovators at our neighbours and went and asked if they could make a new base for the drawers. The young man was great and promised to come back in 3 days. I then took a nap and to my horror, woke to see someone in my room. It was a good thing I did not scream out loud, for Ryan had let the man in to fix his dresser! Well, all’s well and our dresser looks almost as good as new! Of all the painting and sponging we did in our first home, this is the only piece that came with us, and that’s how sentimental we are, and I like it that way!
Credits: heart charm by Sherry Drummond Designs, doodled swirl by Cinnamon Designs, scalloped papers by Favreau Design, background paper by AnnaAspen, boxed word by Chantal, alpha from Lauren Reid’s Hot News No 3.

Now this one is hilarious. Journalling goes: Gim bought me the doll house which I so wanted a year after we were married. We started work on it on evenings. He helped with the building, and I worked on the furnishings, sewing bedspreads, cushions, and it was coming together! Then we got pregnant and when Ryan was born, the dollhouse was stored away. This year, we were packing and showed it to the kids. Ryan exclaimed ‘Ancient Relic’! And begged to have it for the headquarters of his Exoforce army. The rest as they say, is history. How they take over our lives...
Credits : Alpha by HeatherAnn Designs, font is Aquiline and courier, Papers from Color Voltage by Favreau design

All of these templates are available in the store here

Finally, my favourite photos from our day at the museum, what precious sights of the closeness they share ... makes any mom's day, definitely this one.
Credits: Tag from HeatherAnn Designs’ Flea Market, word art and jeans star from Miss Mint’s Wild Weekend, background paper from Michelle Colemans’ Hullabaloo, and from Weeds & Wildflowers’ My Favorite Things, ribbons and buttons by Designs by Krista.

Here's the template for you!

This template will be available in the store soon
It's late and I'm hardly awake, will come back tomorrow and put in the credits for my layouts, as well as answer the questions and comments I've had, thanks so much to all of you especially for your replies to my last post about how you print the double pages, it's wonderful to hear from you, thank you!!

A good question & another download link

I've had a great question from Rarole, who asked, the double pages when printed and bound in a photo book - would not the middle pictures be 'lost' in the binding process ? I have to be honest with you, I've not yet printed into photo book any of my double pages! But examining my last photobook printed at shutterfly (no double pages though), I would expect that a bit of the middle will indeed be 'lost', from view. That's why I consciously try to design the pages such that the main photos are not right in the middle. I'm also thinking, when I send the layout to shutterfly to print, that I will size them 11.98 instead of 12 inches, and place them flushed to the outer sides. But I can't recommend that yet till I try it. I intend to print only when I've completed all my US trip photos.

Is there any one who has tried printing double pages into photobooks? Would love to hear from you how you overcome this. Thanks!

I realised that some of you had difficulty downloading over filefront, so here's another link over at 4 shared for template 36. here

Gotta run, school starts monday and we are getting ready. My mom just came back from visiting my brother in the US and brought back my latest photobook from shutterfly, the one about Everyday life - I'm so pleased with it!!

Back to Regular Life

We're back 5 days now, after 5 days of sun, sand and sea. It's amazing how in 5 days of beach bumming you can totally (ok, almost totally) forget your life back on routine earth, and equally amazing how in less than 2 days we are totally settled back to regular life, work and housework, without skipping a beat!
We had an awesome time, and I had a mental picture of the layout even before I got home, straightaway got working on it, and here's how wonderful a time we had.


I've added this template in the store here
Credits: Paper from Weeds & Wildflowers' My Favorite Things kit, Memories tag from Wendy's crafty creations, twine by Natali Designs, shells from YardBunny's Inspirations, twigs by Schaarka, leaves by Marianne, note paper and clip by Ksharonk, popsicle stick by myself

It's so amazing that this wonderful island and inexpensive holiday is less than 3 hours drive away, Jared calls it our own Tropical Paradise, and we can't disagree. This time we had a chalet that was built on stilts over the water, and every now and then I had to pinch myself to listen to the sound of waves under us all day and night. You get used to these things ! :P What we did not expect was the open air shower, now that got a little complicated!

One thing I accomplished this trip is to "scrapbook" my blog entries over the last two years into my personal journal. I had such a great time pouring over the bits and pieces of our lives recorded there, and could share it with dh and the boys, it was great. Here's a glimpse:
I have two more US layouts done, this is us on our day out to the White House. I loved that it was decked out in Christmas splendor!

Credits: Paper from W&W's A better Me, Doodle by KathyTownzen, ribbon by NataliDesigns, roses by Newlifedreams, christmas flower by DL Patterson, leaves by Scrapidea, Alpha by Designs by Sarah.
This template is also in the store here

And here's one at the National Gallery of Art. Dh had the most fantastic time as he paints and loves the Impressionists. We love that the Galleries allow you to go right up to the paintings, and we could take as many (no flash) photos as we liked. I tried to interest the kids in the art and was pointing out Van Gogh's gorgeous brush strokes when our heart dropped as jared suddenly stuck out a finger to try to scrap off the thick paint. We could have been in the papers that day if we had not stopped him in time. One more proof that he is a hands on learner......!



Credits: Background paper from Kschmidt's flight of life, alpha by HeatherAnneDesigns, flourish from Weeds & Wildflowers' Creating Beauty kit.This is now available as a set in the store here

We're going on holiday!

Yes, we're leaving first thing monday morning for 5 days on a little island resort. There will be nothing to see and do except sun, sea and sand. The boys will be perfectly happy, dh who thinks he will do very well as a beach bum will be perfectly happy, and I too will be perfectly happy except I will be offline and with no scrapping for 5 days! It will be a good break, I'm sure, and I'm bringing lots of issues of Creating Keepsakes, and also, printed copies from my ramblings on my blog, which I hope to cut and paste into my personal journal, with more journaling! :)

The store is running without a hitch, and you all have surprised me with your overwhelming support! THANKS so much!! Unfortunately I won't be able to come up with anything new for a while till we're back. But as a big thank you, I'd like to share a frames kit I did last year, you can download it below.

Some thoughts and observations from the last week:

On date night, dh and I went to watch Sex and the City. It was good fun, and a treat to see those clothes. But the amount of nudity was a rather uncomfortable for me. Actually our local censorship board did not allow the TV series to air on our local TV at all. We could only watch it by buying the DVDs. I'm glad they did it even though there was outcry from some who feel there should be freedom of choice. When I got home I checked and found that the movie received a rating of M18 which means those under 18 are not allowed to watch. I know in this day and age, if they can't go to the movies they will still find a way if they wanted to, but I'm not sure I want my children to be able to easily access these movies with questionable morals (though realistic, some may argue) at age 18. Well, they will anyway, so I know it is up to us to build strong bonds with them through the teen years, and hopefully be able to influence them in the right direction. It's not going to be easy!

On a lighter note, on the same night, dh and I wondered into a hip part of a mall catering to teenagers and young adults, and found to our amusement, the exact (replica?) of the Yonex sports bag he used to sport as a teen, and a polka dot dress (just like one) I used to love, up on the window display of a VINTAGE Shop!! Okay, now we are vintage!! I have a few more dresses and blouses they will probably like to have in there! LOL

Yesterday we took a day off and went on a 5 km walk around what we call the Southern Ridges, it's a bit of green amongst concrete jungle, but the park authorities did a wonderful job of building tree top walks, bridges and connectors, and it was just wonderful. Here are some pics



Great, right?

Also check out these layouts by Nikki McDougal, just so fantastic. I loved how she used her photos as backgrounds. Thanks Nikki!


And here's a little something to say THANK YOU sorry this is currently not available

The Blog Store is Up!

Yes, I finally got it up and running, check it out here: YinDesigns Thanks for visiting!

Made lots of layouts and templates for the store, phew! I'm half wondering if I can keep it up :P
But first, I was tagged, twice actually, last week! By Cyndi of Wetfish designs, and Michelle from Digitalfunplace.blogspot, thanks for getting me to join the fun, ladies. So instead of talking about my kids it shall me about me this week for a change, :)

First here are the rules:
1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

OK, let's see, 7 facts that you probably don't know about me:

1. well, I fell and broke my left arm when I was 7 and a half months pregnant with Ryan. Yep, I did, the doctors decided not to operate due to risk to the pregnancy and I now have a slightly crooked arm but it's totally functional, so no worries. It was tough delivering the baby with the arm in a L shaped cast from shoulder to fingers though!!

2. I can't drive, don't have a licence, our city is so small, and public transport is super, and it just did not come up onto my agenda in life, at least not so far!

3. I am blessed with a great metabolic rate or something that allows me to eat anything I want and not put on weight. I've been underweight most of my life... I know, shoot me :)

4. I don't have an engagement ring - we were engaged on the night dh got a his first job offer after graduation and we were broke. We both wore a dollar stainless steel ring instead! hhmm, stuff for a layout, don't you think?

5. Dh got me my "replacement diamond engagement" ring on the valentines' day after our 7th anniversary. I chose a tiny marquise. It's special, to say the least.

6. My all time favourite novel is "Gone with the Wind". I read the book before I saw the movie, and cried and laughed through both.. it was wonderful everytime.

7. I've always wanted to be a mom, and always wanted daughters. Well, now I honestly think sons are great fun too, and I play lightsaber duels instead of bake cookies with them, but God knows best, and I know I am blessed.

These are who I'll like to Tag, not sure if you've already been tagged, if not, join in the fun!

Tink http://tinkstribulations.blogspot.com/
Shawna (shawnyrvr) http://belovedexpressions.blogspot.com/
Jazzmint http://jazzmint.net/blog/ (jazzmint, i'm having difficulty leaving a comment on your blog, I'll try again later)
Kopperhead http://kopperhead100.blogspot.com/
Ikeagoddess http://ikeagoddess.blogspot.com/
Anita http://nitaandneicy.blogspot.com/
Nikki http://mcdougalfun.blogspot.com/

And here's all the layouts I've made for the one day Monument Tour in DC. Although we are not American, we have read so much about these great men, and it was almost surreal to be actually there, the monuments were so beautiful and solemn and respectful to their memories. I found it a great challenge to make the layouts equally grand, solemn and respectful!

The templates for these layouts are the ones up in my store here: YinDesigns

Credits: Paper from MiraDesigns' Spring Garden, stamp by Marianne, flower and dots by Catscraps, stitches by Kperrien, Alpha by Misty Casto, font is PegsannaHMK

Credits: Paper from Michelle Coleman's Hullabuloo, patterned paper from easy going by Jackie Eckles, medallions and brads by Lisa Sisneros, wordart by JBurkhart, tag by Stephanie Orgre

Credits: orange paper by Mira designs, brown paper by C Kaye, buttons by Tara Dunstan, ribbon by Carole N at PBP, doodle dates by Scarletheels.

Credits: Paper from Blossomshine by LaurenReid, newpaper swilrs from Creating Beauty by Weeds and Wildflowers, vintage label by Gina Cabrera, staples by ksharonk, rose button by Jessica Bolton, pin by Vicki from Digiscrapshak, id plate by Chris Turnbull

And these are photos from our visit to the Gemstone gallery of the Natural History Museum. Totally unbelievable, jaw-dropping time I had there!
Credits: Papers - I blended papers by Leah Riordan from her Bloggidy kit, and Janosh Designs' sampler, lace from Mary ScrapGallerie, stamp alpha and beads by Michelle Coleman, and swirl by Scrappinic.
This is now available as a set in the store here

School HOlidays are here!

School holidays are here!
Before I forget, here's a reply to a question, the font on my US Capitol layout was Aquiline, I downloaded it for free but can't remember the site now, try googling it, it is a lovely font.

The children start their school holidays today! We've handed in the last of the project works, the exams are over and report cards are in, they both did very well, Jared especially improved his grades so much! He was motivated by the reward of a set of Lego mindstorm which we promised him if he scored over 90% for all subjects. He missed by a mark in last terms' exams, and did not complain, and I thought it didn't mean much to him. But this term he worked so hard, and I realised how much he wanted it, and I'm so glad he now knows how hard work always reap rewards! Very, very proud of him!

Ryan had a very interesting final project, in which he was given a "future problem". The problem stated that in the year 2020 there will be a company which has invented a program that so perfectly transforms images or videos no one can tell what is true anymore. (they don't know we can do a lot in photoshop already!! hehe) They had to solve the problem of governments using this technology for hiding the truth, for selfish gains like aid, or hiding weapons, etc. After he identified 16 possible solutions, such as scientists inventing anti-software, government sending spies, he had to rate the 16 based on criterias like cost, resource availibility, ease of implementation... When we checked in on the project last week, we were absolutely tickled and quite proud that he had narrowed down and picked the final best solution, which is, ....drum rolls please.... "PARENTS to EDUCATE their Children against the evils of the software" !!! Our darling Ryan still believes in the virtues and effectiveness of Parents in transforming the next generation! How sweet don't you think? After pats on the back between dh and me, unfortunately we had to explain to him that that solution is unlikely to work because not all parents will do it, and not all chidren believe what their parents say, .... :( still, we hope to buck the trend in our home, oh yes!

There is this layout I want to share, it has precious photos for me. The boys joined dh and I in participating in our church's recent "hear the new testament in 40 days" program, where we listened to the Word being read for half an hour a day. We were not sure that we could stick to it, much less the boys, but once we started, we were blessed, and found it so interesting, and in the end not difficult to complete the program. I took these pictures one morning as we listened, the boys had gotten to reading their bibles while listening, still in their pjs, and this is just such a lovely scene and a great encouragement to me.

Credits: Ksharonk's template and word art by Kristal Hartley at FaithSisters.com

Thanks to all of your awesome comments and feedback! I've started working on the blogstore, the blogheader is up and I'm so excited, if you want to take a look, see here http://yindesigns.blogspot.com/ I'm really pleased with it, used elements I made when I was previously designing, such fun! Now, I'm still struggling with the rest of the set up, hopefully in a week's time it will be up!

Now, for this week's layout and template, here we were at the Korean War Memorial. Ryan is very interested in wars and all, Jared isn't yet, but they seem to get the horrors and pointlessness of wars in the time they spent peering into the eyes and expressions of the soldiers. The memorial was haunting and so beautiful.Credits: Papers by Michelle Coleman's Hullabaloo, note pad by Tangie Baxter, Wax seal by Natalie Bird, Alph by Laren Reid (hot news), font is CK Love note.

This is now available as a set in the store here
Thank you for all your comments, they are precious to me!

Overheard

Overheard
Bits and pieces overheard in our home this week:

Jared was watching Teenage mutant ninja turtle. I teased him, "Why are you watching this? Are you a teenager?", "no", "are you a mutant", "no", " are you a turtle?","no"... "but I am a ninja!" came the triumphant answer. I had forgotten his recent pre-occupation jumping around the house imitating a ninja, his latest hero. LOL

As I was struggling revising Science with Jared for his exams, he said" mommy, you're as tall as Miss C (his teacher), looks like her, dress like her, so why does she know so much more about science than you?" I was so pleased to hear that because Miss C is really pretty and young and he thinks I look like her!!!

Dh was having his turn struggling during revision of Science with Ryan, and in a moment when Ryan went out of the room, we were laughing over how tough their work is nowadays, and we were flipping through his science files and saw to my horror, the reproductive systems and anatomy! Oh my, we had no idea they were taught that already! I hurried out of the room and told dh to have that talk if the chance came up during the revision... dh looked horrified. How will we handle this? ;p

After a particular hard day at work, I came home and lamented about how maybe I will not be able to keep at this job and was worrying... and Ryan said, "but God will provide!" :) Now I had shared with the children how God had proved His provision to our family over the years, and how He has never failed us, and here my son has grown in his faith and is reminding me and encouraging me... my heart sang.

These conversations and moments whether touching or funny are what makes memories for me as a mother. So precious and what I go back to all the time, especially when they are growing up so quickly. May we all have a lifetime of great mommy moments and memories, Blessed Mother's Day!

And here's my latest layout, photos from an afternoon strolling the Mall and around the US Capitol. We took our time and it was great.

Credits: Background paper from Weeds and Wildflowers' Natural papers, red graph paper border by Jessica Gorny, Remember stamp by FeiFei's designs, and flower motif by Anna Aspnes .

I should tell you that I've been thinking of selling my designs and templates, maybe just a mini store off my blog, (because selling at a store takes up too much commitment, otherwise I'll go back to GDS and my dear friends Holly and Deborah anytime), just need a little income to feed my digiscrapping hobby, self-funding is what I call it! But don't worry, I'll still share free templates here, probably limit the time they stay on the blog, still thinking about it. Do let me know what you think!

In the meantime, here's the free template download:This is now available as a set in the store here

More Gorgeous Layouts

More Gorgeous LayoutsI nearly forgot, I had the privilege of some lovely layouts using my templates that have been shared with me, and here are two that I'd got permission to share here. Both different and totally awesome, thank you ladies for sharing your creativity with us!
This is by Cheryl Leong of her trip to Kota Kinabalu.
This is by Kay (kopperhead) of her aunt and uncle