Catching up on 365

It's late and I'm tired, but just completed my next 365 and I'm very pleased with it, want to share it with you!

The template is for you, I've left the journaling around the squares for you, just use your text tool as usual. (I did not test it in PSE though, hope it works) And a couple of word art I did up, go catch up with your 365!
Here is the template download link! Tell me if you like this squares style as much as I do :)

Celebrating 100 Templates !

I'm celebrating 100 templates with a sale!Amazing isn't it? I can't believe I've reached 100 and more. Who knew? You may know the principle I adopted ever since I started template making, I only make templates from my own layouts, as opposed to making them just for sale. This way my own scrapping stays as priority, and the store is secondary just for self-supporting my digi-hobby (and a little more!). And I won't stop sharing freebies as well, cos that's just giving back to this wonderful community from whom I receive so much! Thanks for your great support! Dh asks me how many ways can I arrange the photos?? lol I wonder too! I guess as long as I keep having photos and reasons to scrap!

Finally I've got a blinkie too! I was asked about one and just had no time to get to it, until Jared helped me put this up last weekend, isn't my son great! He's only 10! I gave him the images, told me my ideas, and look what I got! You can snag it for your blogs and all, thanks for being my friends!

The past 4 days I had been 'grounded' at home due to a nasty ear infection (I didn't know it could be so bad!), couldn't really eat or even speak properly, but I could scrap very well, so I happily did. :) I totally enjoyed the next few layouts of the first couple of days in Japan, loved searching for that perfect background and embellishments. Strangely the couple of Japanese themed kits I purchased or downloaded just could not fit in well? I guess my style is too grunge or abstract for them.
This layout is of the beautiful Hama gardens a beautiful oasis amongst concrete skyscrappers of Tokyo.

Credits: Paper by Heidi of Weeds & Wildflowers, red flowers by Vicki Stegall, word strips from Mary's ScrapGallerie, floral frame from Shabby Princess' HarvestSpice
Here we are at Asakusa, so much the quaint and old Japan, with temples, shops, alleys, and lanes for wondering, exploring, taking our time... it was just wonderful...
Credits: Paper and buttons by Livia Y Designs from her shabby elegance kit, label by Michelle Coleman
Now this is a layout of our first day on arrival in Tokyo after a 7 hour overnight flight. It was our first time in Japan, and we were travelling totally on our own, just the four of us. Immediately upon arrival dh's luggage fell apart, we had to put in a claim, rent our mobile phones, exchange for our rail pass and make reservations for our journeys, take the local train, negotiate the huge station, find our tiny apartment hotel in the tiny lane, all with limited means of communication! It was equally exciting as well as trying. Thankfully the boys were well prepped on travelling on 'militantly happy' mode, and the japanese we met were just so friendly and helpful even if we can't understand each other much at all! It was this combination of not knowing what to expect, and finding all kinds of wonderful surprises that made the entire trip a fantastic cultural and travelling adventure!
Credits: background paper by Vinnie Pearce, asterisk doodle by Rachel Martin
Credits: Background paper by K Schmidt (I love her papers!) and glittered leaves by Agnes Lahur
Credits: Background paper from AjaAbney at Lilypad, ribbon by Jessica Sprague, flowers by Jenna Desai
Credits: background paper by Jackie Eckles, journal spot by Sclingerman, and flowers by Mira Designs
All these templates are available in the STORE
And this layout has been made into Template 100 for you!
Credits: Background paper by Ginna Miller, lace by Radmiller Little Deer designs , plaque and keyhole by Vinnie Pearce
This template is now available as a set in the store HERE

Guarantees

Thanks in part to the economic situation, we've been getting great deals everywhere, and I finally got my own laptop - a Vaio, no less, the NS model, heavy but with a beautiful large screen! The boys now have the old computer to themselves, our great three year old Compaq which is chugging along, even 'died' many a times but manages always to revive itself to serve us faithfully. :)
I have a 15 month guarantee on the Vaio, I hope it will last far longer than that!
Tonight I was flipping through 'every teenager's little black book of God's guarantees' by Blaine Bartel, and was so blessed I hope she doesn't mind that I share a bit of it with you:
1. The bible guarantees that if we trust in God, He will direct our path (Prov 3:5,6)
2. The bible guarantees that God has a plan for our lives (Jer 29:11)
3. The bible guarantees that God's purpose for us will prevail (Prov 19:21)She goes on to say that: No matter what we face or how many people let us down, God's direction and plan for us will stand strong. It is not dependent on what other people do or what breaks we catch, it is dependent on our trust in God, and God will never let us down. How true this is as I look back, and how encouraging as I look forward!

And here is our next 14 days of my 365 Project. I'm so glad we still enjoy simple joys everyday despite all the bad news going on. Also loved how this all white page turned out. Scrapping our lives is one of my best simple joys!
Credits: Paiseley from Shabby Princess' HAppy Go Lucky, "living' wordart by J Cafe.

And here are my first two layouts of our Japan trip! Finally I'm starting on them, and it's so exciting to review and re-live the trip... can't believe it's been nearly 3 months....
Credits: background paper by lauraskathi, swirl from SAreverie by Weeds & Wildflowers
We were so happily surprised to find impressionist art on our first day in Tokyo, in Ueno Park just a short walk from our hotel!
Credits: Background paper from Beautiful Rage by Scarlet Heels, swirls by Janosh Designs, ribbons by Krista Designs
As usual, the templates are available now in the store here Thanks for looking!

Not forgetting the link for this linear template
over here at Box Net Box Net is great but it does not seem to allow for your lovely comments! :)

Like Mother Like Son

I want to show you the Book Review Presentation chart that Jared completed last weekend. He had used my digi scrapbooking supplies to make the frames and backgrounds for his write-ups, printed them out, cut them to size, and when he came to gluing them onto the board, he arranged them all skewed and scattered around! "You're not gonna line them up straight?" "No!" came the answer, "I like it random, for it to flow, to be creative." I was so amused! I had not suggested anything to him, and don't you think his presentation looks rather like my layouts??? :) lol
In other aspects I'm not sure he is like me at all. We were watching Heroes which was on our cable "marathon" style with season 3 all shown on one day, and I asked the boys, if you had special powers like them, would you be a hero or a villian? Ryan gave me a 'i'm not going to answer you' look, but Jared shot right back, " I'd be a mischief." He understands himself so well. lol

I finally caught up with my next 14 days of 365 photos, this page was so easy to do and so much fun, I'm getting the knack of linear layouts with a touch of embellishment for interest!

You know, I'd like to share how Project 365 is impacting me:
1. I find it more and more fun! I loved that I'm really capturing the everday of our lives!
2. I think everyday, how am I going to come up with new ideas for photos for the so routine life of mine? And yet somehow I find them, even in the seemingly mundane! The trick is not being too hard on myself, and letting myself miss a day or two and make up by 'cheating' a little with double photos some other day.
3. But most significant of all, doing Project 365 is making me realise our days are passing by SO QUICKLY! I told dh about it yesterday and we both reiterated to each other how we must LIVE! We told ourselves, whatever we want to do, plan to do, thought of doing, do it!
What thoughts do you have from participating in, or seeing others' Project 365?

Credits: pink paper by Karine, yellow paper by Shabby Princess, red paper by Ksharonk, swirl pby Jen Wilson



And as requested by some, here are more Project 365 templates available in the store here:



This is an 'extra' I made which you can download and play with and download here


You can also download this templatehereat box net. I haven't had any problems with 4 shared, but heard about some that did, so I thought I should try out box net for a while :)

Family History

I think all of us scrapbookers are in one way or another trying to preserve, create, record, in our own form, our family history. So I was very excited to learn that Ryan had been given an assignment to write a biography of a family member. He chose to interview and write about his grandmother, my mom. We all watched three weeks ago as we set up cameras and tape recorders, and he asked her all the questions he prepared, and acted all adult and grown up as he prompted her, saying "I see", "How interesting", "i didn't know that!" ... in response. My mom was so happy and though a little uncomfortable at first, quickly warmed up to her first grandson's interview.
Anyway the biography is done, at nearly 5000 words - capturing a few things even I didn't know about my own mom, and helping him understand her much much more, AND preserving for future generations a bit more of our Family History. I WILL be making a layout out of it!
Ryan did not want to let me share the biography here, but I will tell you my mom singlehandedly brought my brother and I up after the early and sudden passing away of my dad nearly thirty years ago. And you can see a picture of us below taken when we celebrated her birthday which fell within the chinese new year period.
I've removed several photos from this 365 layout because they were full of friends and relatives whom I have not gotten permission to post online. I'm quite behind in my project 365! You can download the template for this below.

Now some overdue answers to comments and questions on my blog recently (I love reading them, then keeping them in my mail box, always planning to come back and answer them, but seldom finding the time, but today shall be an exception! )
Thanks to Cara for giving me the lovely award!
Thanks to Tess too for introducing me to the very interesting blog photo challenge, wish I had time to participate :P have to prioritise my time very strictly!
To Shawnyrvr, I loved to hear what you and your dh do for each other - HOW sweet and precious!
To Savannah Brentnall who asked if my templates can be used in scrap for others projects - the answer is YES - I should do up proper TOUs and post them in the store - another on my to do list!
Thank you Tink for your ALWAYS heartfelt comments.
To Karen, I know what you mean about taking forever to find the right colored kit or papers. I organise by printing out previews but am now behind in my printing. Still, for the two latest layouts below, I limited myself to searching within my printed previews, and managed to do both in two and a half hours each.
To Brenda and everyone who has been asking me about a sale - I've announced that I will have the bundle sale again in July once I have added more stuff to the store. But since you all asked, I'll probably hold a 20-25% sale in March or April - so do plan accordingly! Thanks for your interest!
To Sara, amazing that you've done 27 layouts this year already! I thot I was productive! :)
To Soffy, I will work on 365 templates soon, have sketched them out, just not had time to put them together yet.
And to Anita, your layouts are Beautiful! And so are your girls, how they have grown! Can I send everyone to your blog to check out all the lovely layouts here!
And Thank you everyone for taking the time to write comments for my humble blog.

Here are layouts I completed this week - am trying new styles for the last few layouts of my 2008 album - this one is inspired by a picture of a wooden board in a beach house where lots of pictures and knickknacks were haphazardly tucked and pinned onto.

I'll come back tomorrow to put up the credits.
And for this layout I wanted the look of spontaneous journaling in a children's note book!Again credits will be posted tomorrow, it's too late tonight!
And yep, as usual, templates are available in the store

I nearly forgot! haha! You can download this template HERE. Hope you like it.

Happy Valentines' Day

Happy Valentines' Day!
DH and I don't usually celebrate Valentines' Day as we find it terribly commercialised but yesterday (on the eve so it's still regular prices) he brought me to a jazz bar for the first time in my life. We like listening to jazz, so he thought live jazz would be wonderful! It was! The only thing was we don't really drink, and had no idea what to order, finally settled for a mocktail and something raspberry that tasted like cough syrup! lol
But better than that, I made a fabulous card for him with this layout which I printed out on tracing paper, and attached to the inside of the card. Can you tell it's in the shape of a heart? We had started taking pictures of ourselves by looking into a camera we held at arms length, because we hardly have pictures of the two of us on trips and the boys are still too young then. Well, these are a collection of such shots taken in HK, Singapore, US, Japan, Malaysia, I turned them into black and white to unite them. I love this layout and he did too! Can't wait to share it with you, scroll all the way down for the template link!
Credits: It's you I love quote by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals, ribbon tie and angels stamp by Gina Cabrerra, We will be friends quote by Jackie Eckles, I 'heart' you word art by Studio ELlie, heart patch by purescraps, clip from kiki's springtime kisses, background paper by TracyAnn designs
Today the scripture passage I read included Mark 1: 7 " where John the Baptist said of Jesus :" the throngs of whose I am not worthy to stoop down and untie." WOW. This really helps me to picture a glimpse of Jesus' Greatness and my unworthiness, and helps me appreciate a little better how great His love for me. May you know His love this day when the world celebrates love.

And I want to tell you of the blog of my new found friend Lynette, you must go check it out here . She does beautiful photo and digiscrapping art which she shares DAILY for FREE, and also shares beautiful words of inspiration and truth. What a dear she is! Thanks Lynette!

I'm behind in scrapping my project 365, but intend to catch up and will share more templates then! I will try to make more 365 templates too as requested!

Thanks to Rebecca who highlighted to me that the Shutterfly offer is only for CK books, well, since I got started, I'll still be hurrying to finish the remaining layouts of my 2008 photos. I'm so proud of myself I did the below layouts in less than one and a half hours each. Normally I take up to 3 hours, mostly spent on searching for the perfect background paper (!) and on arranging the photos and making the shadows, of course. How long do you normally take per layout?
Credits: Background paper from Lauren Reid's Create Wings, and everything else from Michelle Coleman's Island Adventures


Credits: Background paper by Gina Cabrerra, Stamped swirl by Lori Barnhusrt,stitched flower by Dani Mogstad, word arts by Vinnie Pearce, alpha by Sarah Robinson, you & me word art by Krystal Hartley


These templates are now available in the store thanks for looking!

Download this heart shaped template HERE and I'm excited to see what you make from it! Email me with a copy (and indicate if you don't mind me showing it on my blog) to yindgs at yahoo dot com dot sg.