New Blog Look

I've been wanting to dress up the blog like so many others have done, now that the screens have been expanding in width, and finally got my inspiration from Nicole Young's blog (it's incredibly beautiful!) and from her post on customising your blog, see here. I loved the chance to fix up some of my most favorite layouts so I can enjoy them all the time! :) Thanks Nicole!

Frog in the Well

Yes, that's the latest collection of my 365 layouts all stacked up! Isn't it just fabulous? I just love that I will have this year entirely captured in pictures! I've already started to think what kind of album/theme I want to make next year! Now this blog is my other place for recording what doesn't get captured in the 365 album, like the thought of the week. :)

A "frog in the well"is a chinese saying that means someone who is so out of touch with the world and only knows his bit of the world but thinks that it is all there is. It is also the recent complaint of Jared, who claims that we are making him into a "frog in the well".
What an incredulous claim to come from our 10 year old! At first we thought it was so funny, but it made me think. It started one day at a bookshop when we would not agree to buy him the latest Pokemon Annual. Then he went on about how he no longer knows so many things his friends knows, that he is outdated, not able to keep up with the latest trends and fads (yes he knows the word), all because we do not allow and will not buy them any Nintendo, PSP, Wii or the like! He also claims Ryan and him are the only children in his entire school that do not have a mobile phone!! (I'm sure that is not true?) He cried a few times talking about this and seemed genuinely sad and feeling deprived.
What's a parent to do? In our efforts to protect them from the addictive influence of what we feel are stuff they can well do without, we are faced with the pull of the idea of not depriving our children. Are we being unrealistically strict, given the world they live in? Some say if they grow up deprived they will become even more addicted to what they could not have. I choose to believe if we give them much more of what we think is good, it will balance out what they do not get to have. Now giving them much more of what is good, that is the tough part!
Then again, Ryan is not complaining. So at least one kid thinks it is okay? Or maybe he is just more reticent by nature... :) . And so we press on, pray for God's wisdom, and are determined not to give in, (check back again in a year or so), even if that makes us frogs in the well!
Do you have similar struggles? Not over the same things perhaps, but something you want to hold on to, but are up against the pressures of the world? Thanks anyways if you read this far of my ramblings!

Finally here's my latest 365 layout. I got this particular page idea from the evernote site home page. I'm keeping to my theme of white background clean lines layout style for this entire album. It makes for fast scrapping and capturing of the year!
Credits: word art by Danielle D designs, papers all from Bren Boone, heart by Kate Hadfield, doodled border by Emily Meritt, alpha from Weeds & wildflowers.
Template 148 can be downloaded here.Leave me a comment if you download! Oh, for the folded corners, after you have clipped your chosen paper to that layer, lower the opacity, or change to overlay blending mode so the curved shadow shows through.

Enoughism

Two weeks ago, Jared was working hard on a social studies project on whether children really need all that store-bought toys, versus homemade toys and fun that can be had from things found at home. He chose the topic because he is fantastic at having fun from anything! His teacher tried to loosely wrap his project around the topic of "Consumerism" and he asked me what is Consumerism? That led to a fantastic conversation and discussion and we found this definition on Wikipedia: Consumerism is the equation of personal happinness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen or, more recently by a movement called Enoughism.'" Now that led us to Enoughism which is defined on Wiki as: Enoughism is the theory that there is a point where consumers possess everything they need, and by buying more it actually makes their life worse off. Now isn't that a thought!
Jared surprised me by his understanding, and we talked about not buying any more toys unless he gave some away, and he reminded me that I have enough vintage rings already and I do not have enough fingers to wear them on (!) and moreover, my harddisk is bursting with the digital kits I've downloaded and bought (lol)! Finally Jared said, I don't think we have Enoughism yet, but I think what we have is TooMuchism!! I totally agree! Now to set the example (they are never too young to learn) to know "contentment with holiness is great gain".

On the Ryan front, he has since added 3 more phrases to his conversational repertoire since I did the layout two posts down (the strong and silent type). When he tries to tell me something and I take a while to get it, he says " Oh, never mind". When I ask him too many questions, he says "It's Classified". When I try to remind (ok nag) him, he says "Fine! Fine! Fine!" My friend tells me she read James Dobson's comforting words that our children may go mute as they enter deeper into their teenage years, but no worries, their vocabulary will return in time. That's comforting!
Actually for all his angst, he is a very wonderful boy, just last thursday, I got home so late and finally had my dinner at 10pm, after which he offered to wash up all the dishes, pots and pans for me, now that's the sweetest thing ever! So what if he is of very few words? :)

It's a little late, but I do want to thank everyone for making the sale a great one, thank you very much! I've been closing in on the deadline of a project at work, and working on a special 'project' on the designing front as well, so no layouts to show except for catch up on my 365. I've reused my last template (you can find it a few posts down) because I love it so much!




And this is what I came up with for the next two weeks. I honestly can't wait to complete this album and get it printed and hold it in my hands!! 4 more months (about 9 layouts for me since I do 1 layout per fortnight) to go!!





You can download it here. Let me know if I've helped you keep going in your 365 project!

Girls Night Out

Two weeks ago I had an all girls night out with my primary school classmates! Yes, we were classmates from age 7 to 12, and met up recently after nearly 30 years! There were more than ten of us, and we had a fantastic time reminiscing about the past, filling in the gaps, updating each other, laughing so hard all night long. It was a wonderful time, amazing too, that despite all that we had experienced these years, between us we have career women, business women, homemakers, mothers of one to mothers of four, mothers of ages 21 months to 17 years, married, divorced, chosen to be single, and so on, but it didn't matter, we were all genuinely happy for one another, there was no need to compare or wonder what could have been (something we might have done if we were still in our twenties), or might have been, at our age we know it is just great to be alive and well, and to have tried to live the best we can, and that we are all blessed with our lot in life, and all agree we definitely look better than we did all those years ago! I felt so great thinking about this that night and just wanted to remind us all to celebrate every age we are at! We are blessed! (hint: it's a great thought as I'm celebrating another birthday this week, :))

And oh yes, some news, Ryan has been accepted at one of the High Schools that he applied to, we had prayed for God's clear direction, and He answered clearly! Though we are so proud, we are also worried if he could cope with this prestigious school's rigorous standards, but God has shown, and we will and can trust and walk in faith!

Managed to complete two layouts continuing with our Japan trip photos, these are both layouts of our day at Disneysea. I'm loving the one big photo as background format again!



And here are my cowboys ;P



Did you read Katie the Scraplady's article on Power Scrapping on The Daily Digi? I love what she wrote, it is how I scrap too, and she puts it so eloquently! I usually work on 2 to 3 layouts at the same time, doing each stage for all 3 layouts at the same time: gathering photos, deciding which photos go into each layout, arranging them, looking for background, elements, alpha, and so on, it moves really quickly as I can work on each little step each day with the little time I've got!

With the help of wonderful ladies Lois B and Natalie Hill (sending the templates I had lost back to me (!)) I was able to put together the old freebie 12X12 template in a pack in the store. These would be from templates # 5,7,8,9,10,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,23,30,33. They are here in the store



I've also reposted this old freebie desktop from when I just came back from the US trip. I think almost all the ones taken off file front previously are now all reposted! If you haven't got it yet, get it here

Old Freebie Templates

I have had requests for the older freebie templates that were taken off when Filefront close my account with them. Finally I have put all the double pages up in the store Here. Don't forget to take advantage of the sale!


The templates included in this pack are templates # 20,21,22,24,25,26,27 and 36

I'm sorry I seem to have lost some of the single page templates, so will have to re-create them from the layout files again, that will have to wait!

For now, I've also put up two old freebie templates in the store page. Will work on the rest as I have time. You can download it here

National Day

On 9 August, we celebrated our nation Singapore's 44th National Day! Yes we are a very young country, and a very small land, we are a richly multi-cultural society, a modern city, cosmopolitan if I may say, we have our share of problems and grouses, we may not seem particularly patriotic, but we are proud of our young heritage, we have our unique and Singaporean ways, food, even English (which we endearingly call ''Singlish")! And most of all, this is where we call home. I'll like to share this song we love, written locally and sung by a Singaporean singer, Kit Chan, called, "Home". I'm sure you feel the same way about wherever in this world you call home. Enjoy!
Here's the lyrics:
HOME
====
Whenever I am feeling low
I look around me and I know
There's a place that will stay within me
Wherever I may choose to go
I will always recall the city
Know every street and shore
Sail down the river which brings us life
Winding through my Singapore

Chorus:
This is home truly, where I know I must be
Where my dreams wait for me, where that river always flows
This is home surely, as my senses tell me
This is where I won't be alone, for this is where I know it's home

When there are troubles to go through
We'll find a way to start anew
There is comfort in the knowledge
That home's about its people too
So we'll build our dreams together
Just like we've done before
Just like the river which brings us life
There'll always be Singapore

( Repeat Chorus )
For this is where I know it's home
For this is where I know I'm home

On National Day we went to the beach in Sentosa with our friends the Wong family and had a wonderful (and hot and crowded :)) time. This year, we had a thing going nationwide to have everyone say the Singapore pledge at 8:22pm, (where the parade is estimated to end) wherever we are. We were having dinner at the time, and some young people in the next table burst into it, and our boys followed suit (I am afraid we adults embarassingly can't remember all the words of the pledge).
This is our pledge:
We, the citizens of Singapore
pledge ourselves as one united people,
regardless of race, language or religion,
to build a democratic society,
based on justice and equality,
so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and
progress for our nation.
It was quite a nice moment, watching our children say it with so much enthusiasm. :)

Hope I've done my little bit in introducing you to our Singapore!

Here's more layouts I completed, some 12X12s to add to our 2009 album. I've decided to add them into my 365 album for the year, rather than make a separate album. There will be lots of white 365 pages, interspersed with these, I think it will be interesting (!)
This first one is from our first rock concert in many years! (I think I've attended only 3 in my life, one of which is to Michael Jackson's concert in Singapore more than 10 years ago!)
Credits: Background blended from papers by Vinnie Pearce and Lisa Sisneros, Greatest hits record & Super Star & RockOn stamp by Dani Mogstad, foil paper, and title stamp by Studio Mgl, Let's Rock strip by Susan Fitch.

And this one is from a day visiting the science centre and Marina Barrage - which is this amazing engineering thing they did to build a dam across where the Singapore river goes into the sea, making it like a reservoir, to provide water supply, flood control and a new area for water sports!
Credits: background paper by Redju, journal mat from Brandy's project 365, Smile by Leah RIordan, earth and flower by Lyndsay Riches, journal strip by Misty Cato, Border word art by Weeds & Wildflowers, alpha by Brittish designs

Here is an example of how Jared's daydream finally became a reality. He is a persistent child, and a very curious and imaginative one too! Love the boy. :)
Credits: background paper by Cher Pea designs, blue paper by Weeds&Wildflowers, fishing rod by Jady Day Studio, alpha by Suzy Q Scraps, fish element from Seni's little sea, daydream workart by Sahlin Studio

Here's the record for posterity of my (still) nearly a teen. (can you believe he is still twelve and about 5'8''?) He will tell me loads but if I try to pry, then I get the strong and silent type. lol. Love the boy too!
Credits: background paper by Mira designs, title mat by Lisa Marie Hankins, speech bubles by Miss mint, J Crowley, Ksharonk, Mel Wilson, Simply Scraps, word art by Chantal, 'special' by K Pertiet, red alpha by Suzy q Scraps, painted alpha by Weeds & Wildflowers.

And now here's my most enjoyable 365 layout yet, I think! I got this idea off a Jounalling off the edge book, and had so much fun adding bits and pieces and paint strokes to create this. Think I'm gonna use the template more than once for sure! You can download it further down! Show me what you did with it!Credits: flower doodle by Emerritt designs, yellow paint strokes by Rachel Young, plastic paint dots by Sugar Plum Paperie, blue paint stroke by Carrie Bombria, alpha by Weeds & Wildflowers, Days words by Mel Wilson, Girls word art by Miss Mint, doodles by Scrapkitty designs, Britt designs, Megan Turnidge, Lyndsay Riches, blue circle stamp by Jackie Ecles, family element by Jay Day Studio.
Download here to play. Show us what you did with it by leaving a link to your blog/gallery or send it to me at yindgs at yahoo dot com dot sg

And here is another painterly layout I did of the short trip me and dh took to Bintan (it's only an hour away by ferry). I love the graphic look I got, digging through my stuff to find these doodley pics. We had such a good time there, it's really great we still have so much fun, so much to laugh and talk about, still best friends, after 27 years of friendship and 15 years of marriage. We know we are really blessed.
Credits: Background paper by Eclectic Designs by Gabi , heart element by Zazou, doodle frame on right by Traci Reed, doodle on left by Julia Can Der Werf, red dot stamps by E.M. designs, love actually word art by Faith True
This template is now available as a set in the store HERE

Replies to some questions and comments

Forgot to respond yesterday! Here's my reply:

Masv asked how do you get the words to go around the pictures? - I use the Ellipse shape tool from the toolbox in PS CS2 (press shift-u until you get it) then select the paths icon on the top toolbar that pops out. You can now draw a circle path by holding the shift key and clicking and dragging out the shape. Once that's done switch to the type tool click on the circle path and you can type away! I've included the type path in the template 133 to make it easier for you!

Alessandra asked about how to use clipping mask in psp. I'm sorry I'm not familiar with psp, I do have a link in the post here to a psp tutorial, hope that helps. (Update: Linda has posted this in comments: "PSP users can find a great free script that acts like a clipping mask in this thread at DST: linked here It works great - I use it all the time!" (thanks so much, Linda!)

mother of 2 (thanks for your lovely words!) asked if I would be having a sale soon and if the earlier freebie templates will be in the store soon. Well, yes, as soon as I can find the time! :) Actually I was mentally planning to have a sale when I hit 150 templates, but that does not look like it would be in the near future at all, so let me try to make it within August. thanks for asking!

YGS asked if I would consider selling the action I use to make the photo frames/shadows - I'm sorry, I do not use actions, but make each frame/shadow from scratch! I did try to make an action for it, but it did not work because I wanted each shadow to have different angle / lift / size depending on where it was on the layout arrangement.

Just want to thank everyone for your lovely comments and feedback and questions, greatly appreciate them, you always make my day and keep me going!

It's all in the mind

Last week Jared had his Re-Test for the national physical tests for which he 'failed' in the 1.6km run the first time round. During the first test a month ago he had suffered a combination of shoes that did not fit (he was wearing an old pair of Ryan's), stomach stitches (probably drank too much just before the run), no practice (he had no idea how fast or slow he had to run), and loss of confidence (it seems to me he 'gave up' halfway through). I felt so bad as I should have helped and not let him go in so unprepared and end up feeling lousy. So the last few weeks we had been doing a bit of training (together with dh who is planning and training for the marathon in dec), and prep talking, :). And last friday he did it, not just passed, but came back with a 'gold' timing! He amazed me! And of course we are all so proud and he feels great and has learnt a valuable lesson about training, preparation, and perseverance. We read this verse to him, from
Romans 5:3-5"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."
It wasn't sufferings, but perhaps to a ten year old failing and being last in something like that is, and then overcoming it - I hope it stays with him! And it is a lesson we have been trying to teach him, and yet do need to learn ourselves. I too am guilty of complaining and wanting to run away from my 'troubles', may this verse humble and encourage us all. :)

And now more layouts from Langkawi!
Credits: Background paper by GypsyCouture, word art by Zoe Pearn, stitching by Creashens, stitched flower by Sweet Genevieve designs


Credits: background paper by Studio Mgl, dots by Nivole Seitler, chandlier by green box creations, Lets'Eat by shabby princess


Unfortunately I did not capture Jared's winning run on camera, but I do have these! This is from a 365 template from Weeds & Wildflowers. I'm beginning to enjoy using templates - so quick to scrap! :)




Here's my next 365, this is inspired by Ali Edwards timeline layout in the latest issue of CK, love her original ideas and most of all, her approach to recording life.
Credits: circle stamps by Miss Mint, dotted frames by Weeds&Wildflowers, Captured Moments stamp by Nina Scrap Designs, All you need stamp by Jackie Ecles
You can download this hereThanks for all your comments and love!