More Dailiness Moments

Thanks everyone for your support and wonderful comments in the last post, I feel so blessed! And best of all, convinced that I'm actually helping gals like myself scrapbook your memories and capture more of them quickly and beautifully. I'm honored! And makes it all so worthwhile! :) Thanks too for visiting the store and the sale, sale ends in two days, a big THANK YOU once again!


I've been taking a break from travel layouts and wanting to catch up on capturing moments from our dailiness (see last post). Since deciding not to do the 365 project this year, I've taken significantly less photos (gasp!) and dh and I are thinking we're missing something here. (sob!) I have been jotting down stories & moments that I want to scrap, but some are 'pictureless' :(  But whatever, I am determined to add them to my scrapbooks!

Like, just yesterday, I had one of these moments, when I was at our shared computer, and Ryan wanted to play games on it, while waiting for me, I let him (or he let me) snuggle and sit on my lap (he was heavy) for long enough while I got him to watch Katrina's video (see last post) with me !!!!!! PRICELESS. I think he understood and felt some of the sentiments she was talking about, that these are how I feel as I watch him grow up. At the point in the video where she talks about her sons leaving home for college, I gasped as I remembered Ryan will have a year of boarding in Year 5 (he's in year 1 now) - to which he calmly replied, "Mom don't worry, I'll be back in year 6." I hugged him tight and wanted to say that being back in year 6 doesn't help the fact that you're going to be away for the whole of year 5(!) but simply thought, how steady and independent he has become. :) No photos for this moment, but need to capture!!


Happily, I did these two layouts this week - in the simple linear style which is so much easier and faster (did not make templates of them since they are so simple, but if you like to have them, let me know)
It's Ryan learning how to tie his school tie from his dad, and then Jared also wanting to get into the action (doing the men thing) I just loved watching them....

Have you been capturing your daily moments? Link us to some of your layouts!

And now thanks to Rheanne I realised that Templates 146 & 147 (which were contributions to The Digi Files 8 of Oct 2009) were not packaged for the store. I must have forgotten.

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

Blessed Easter! And Loving Dailiness

Thank you for the cross, the mighty cross
That God himself should die for such as us
And everyday we're changed
Into Your image more and more
Yes, by the cross we've truly been transformed

And we're so amazed and we give you praise
That you would save us at such a cost
And we're so amazed and we give you praise
For the power of the cross
For the power of the cross
Copyright: 1990 Integrity's Praise! Music


Blessed Easter to everyone! Trust you had a wonderful time with your family too. We celebrated in church together the gift of God that was given through Christ. The lyrics above is one of the songs my family sang together on Good Friday in our own little worship time together at home. It was just too wonderful to worship as a family, hearing Ryan's tenorish voice with Jared's childish one blend with dh's base voice and my piano notes singing to the Lord. The boys were for once both quiet and attentive as dh shared of the Lord's amazing Love, and then he led us all in prayer. A truly wonderful morning! We must do this more often.

Of all the everyday things we do as a family sometimes a moment like this will stand out and mark a special place in our memory and I want to have many such ones with my family, especially as the boys are growing up in light speed ! (in their speak)

In my last post, Jenny shared a beautiful video of author Katrina Kenison, reading a chapter from her book, The Gift of an Ordinary Day: A Mother's Memoir. It's so beautiful I wanted to share it here with you but do not know how to fit it in the post. So I'm gonna send you to the video here instead. If you have not seen it or read the book please go over, you won't regret it!

My mission now : To make sure the special and meaningful happen but also to capture and savour the daily ones that seem mundane but will pass us only too quickly!

Amazingly, when I went over to order a copy of the book, I found that Katrina had written an earlier book, Mitten Strings for God - Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry, also about discovering the sacred in the ordinary, written when her children when younger. And that I have read and loved it! When I fished out my copy I was very excited to find that I had scribbled a few precious daily moments (in 2002) in the margins of the first chapter - Dailiness. And I immediately made this layout :)  That's the boys aged two and four ...

Getting to template 200 means I'm closing in on completing my 2008 Japan Album - only one or two more layouts to go!! Here are the latest creations from the days and nights we spent in our favorite city of Kyoto. It is the loveliest, quaintest, city with a wonderful old city air, we really loved wondering around. We also skipped the largest, most famous temples and sights for smaller, less crowded ones where it sometimes felt we were the only ones there. Totally loved it. Hopefully one day we get to go back :)
                                 
                                          (click on images to enlarge)

Here is one more layout from Himeiji - it is so lovely and picture perfect I had to make one more layout!

And one more layout is needed for these cute pics of what we and Jared were constantly doing on the trip - perhaps only we know what I am talking about, lol, but that's why it's precious to us!

And a final two pager to capture all the quirky single photos of the magnificent experience of Japan.

The templates below are for downloading! Will love it if you leave a comment! Thank you  ;P

                                          Download template 198 here
                                          Template 199  is now available as a set in the store HERE
                                          Template 200 is now available as a set in the store HERE

Life around here

Been a while since my last post: Life around here has been hectic!
Jared has visited the dentist 3 times in the last two weeks, had a root canal done, and 3 other teeth pulled out, both he, I and the dentist are traumatised (the last visit lasted two and a half hours and a lot of tears), and one more is due this coming Wednesday to finally fill in that root canal treated tooth. The good news is, he is now super diligent in his tooth brushing, flossing and using mouth wash, lol. I have some photos and this is definitely going to be a layout for this year. :)
We had a bit of a scare after Ryan had a podiatrist visit and it was suggested he be checked for Marfans syndrome - thankfully further checks with a paediatrician proved that it is negative, I had a week of learning to trust God no matter what the outcome is - that was really hard but faith building.

Life around here also revolves around my newly minted teen and pre-teen - like Tracy said a few weeks back, yes, I need to trade notes and all the help I can get, on how to navigate this new phase of life for me, haha! Ryan is so sure of himself (unlike me when I was a teen) and coping with first months of high school really well, he hates it when I want to know about this and that - to him it is intruding, and I am learning new creative ways of getting involved in his life without probing! Recently he did a school project - "My autobiography project" - did up a journal with all my digi-scrapbooking supplies - I just loved it! He appreciated my help, thinks I'm kind (and easily 'manipulated' haha) and do have soft spot for me about what he feels is my innocence and tells me "mom, you're so easy to follow!" lol! We realise the way to parent then now is by influence - walking the talk, setting an example, especially in our spiritual life, how we walk with God, seek His Will, and all that.... Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it." What a responsibility, and what a calling!
I have kept up the tradition of making a birthday layout with a prayer for this young man:

Credits: Background paper by Valarie Ostrom, patterned papers from Lori Barnhurst's Kid Couture , word art by Jen Wilson, Dani Mogstad, Shabby princess, Tracy Howard
And here's our birthday prayer for Jared, the creative, imaginative, free-spirited one in the family. Recently we had a 'meltdown' situation with him over getting homework done, and we asked him,"why don't you just focus and complete your work which can be easily done in half an hour, instead of reading, playing, and doing everything else leaving work to the last when you're tired and melting down?" And his answer? "The thought that ..sob..life is so much more than homework...sob..sob..." !!!

Credits: Background paper by Kate Hadfield (painted pretties), patterned papers by 'bbd from dsa freebie'and from whispereddreams by emarta, word art by Jen Wilson, Dani Mogstad, Bethany wordarts, and Shabby Princess
The templates of these can be downloaded - scroll down for the links!

And I have been trying out new styles! Was inspired to use all white backgrounds for my next 4 Japan trip layouts - what do you think? It was not planned, I had a difficult time finding the background paper color for the Shrine layout and the Kobe layout, and accidently found that white works! I really love the modern feel of white against the traditional scenes of Japan - who knows, this might be a new direction for me :)

Credits: Doodled border from Nancie Rowe Janitz's One Swet Love Borders

Credits: Paint by Creashens, Brown paper by Joyce Paul, alpha by Christina Renee, borders by Michelle Filo from the So Charming kit from LDD

Credits: Ribbon by Mira Designs, lflowers by Cori Gammon, button by Emiko Designs, Yellow paper by Megan Turnidge from Good Day Sunshine

Credits: Stitches by Shabby Princess, fan from Take me to the Orient by Simply Sweet Designs , black paper by Michelle Coleman

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

Questions on printing photobook

Just a quick post to answer some of the questions from my last post:

macchiato queen asked:

1. For shutterfly printing, does that mean that for single page layout, I should add a white border to the page for Shutterfly to crop away when printing (so that I don't lose the sides)? 2. And for double page, I add a white border to the 3 sides on the "outside" and take 3/8 inch of the other page for the border at the fold?

No I don't add any white borders to the page (whether single page layout or double page layout). I don't think the printing process would be cutting so precisely, so that would pose the risk of having a silver of white border left on the layout. I want my pages to extend all the way to the edge.

If there are items on my layout that are near the edge and I don't want to risk them being cut off, this is what I do. Before I save the jpegs, I select all the layers on my layout except the background paper layer, (ie, all the photos, mats, elements, words, text layers) and edit/transform them a little smaller on the layout, such that they would be still visible after the cutting. The background layer is left intact extending all the way to the edge, so that my page will not have any white border no matter where it is cut.

Here's an example. This page is as it is originally on my photoshop file, it had elements quite near the edge which I did not want to be affected.

Before I load the page onto shutterfly, I had reduced the size of every layer except the background layer, such that the elements are now at least 0.25 inches from the edge.
And here is how the page looked printed!


Wendy has written a wonderful article on The Daily Digi on how to do it, she does a much better job than me! She also has lots of products in her store to resize for printing, which has received great reviews. I wish I know how to do actions like hers, that would save me a tonne of time! So do go check her out.

Shamnalee asked: where do you print your photo books? how do the two page templates work?
Well I printed at Shutterfly.com. For more information on using the two page templates, see this post and this post too. Hope these help!

Thanks Mima and Jenny for sharing where you print, may I ask if your experience is for printing loose pages or binded photo books? Thanks!

Blessed Chinese New Year !

It's going to be a long post, but first I want to share a Chinese New Year Wish with all of you, even if you don't celebrate it! Traditionally, when we meet anyone during the CNY celebrations (which lasts 15 days) we greet them with wishes that come in 4-characters-phrases/idioms. I loved how these set of 4 traditional wishes became meaningful when someone shared with us how there are Promises in the Bible that promises similar or better! (I'll roughly translate for those who don't understand chinese)
Here's wishing you:
心想事成 (whatever your heart thinks will come true)
Psalms 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
万事如意 (everything will be according to your wishes)
Romans 8:28 in all things God works for the good of those who love him....
岁岁平安 (every year will be peaceful)
Philippians 4:7 The peace of God will guard your hears and minds in Christ Jesus
事业有成 (whatever you do will find success)
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know my plans for you, plans to prosper you...plans to give you future and a hope.
A blessed New Year to you all, truly, in Him and by His grace, every of our days will be blessed!

Here is my latest layout. My dear friend Yen snapped these pictures of me and dh while we were singing and running through chords for worship songs for a gathering later that night. These are the moments that are so precious and that matters. I'm really missing 365 but glad I have more time for layouts like this.. Do you have layouts of everyday moments that captures your heart?

And my 365 photobook has arrived!!!
The very best part is seeing how the family, especially dh reading and enjoying every photo of everyday of last year! He said "this is wonderful, this is beautiful" quite a few times, wow. Even Miffy (this particular one we call Biffy (he is more beafy) enjoyed finding himself in the book!
Now we had been talking about printing double pages in the last post, and had received quite a few feedback, thanks to everyone who responded, let me summarise some of it here:

Lynette shared how much she loved books printed at this new site she found - you can find her review on her blog in this post here.

Jacinda has printed some of my 2-page templates successfully through www.myreflections.com.au, what I'm excited to hear is that the pages come out looking EXACTLY like they do on your computer screen - nothing cut off in the printing process - I gotta check this out.

Michelle printed with Heritage Makers and liked them so much she signed up as a consultant! She loves that the books are hand stitched and the matte version is beautiful.

I have also read that Viovio is great, and have wanted to try Blurb for the longest time, but every time Shutterfly throws one of their coupons at me, I just go with them! Less learning curve!

Oh and thanks to reader sdwrdt for pointing out that the heart shaped template in the post below shows as template 92 on the preview but is actually template 93 in the actual file. You're amazing, thanks!

Jody asked for my templates that have photos that cross the centre page, do these print nicely or does some of the photo get cut off? So I took some pics to show you. Personally I am alright that some photos like the beach shot at the top of the layout below spreads across the page, and a little of it down the middle gets hidden (mine was a 70 page book!) I find that worth sacrificing for the effect of a double page spread! Don't put a facial shot down the middle of the double page spread though!

It gets a little more tricky if you have words down the middle, so I won't recommend it unless you're die-hard like me!
I want to show you in detail how I circumvented the problem I might have had with words down the middle like in this layout below.
The words lined up quite nicely after printing, but I had to do some adjustments for shutterfly because of the way they trim off edges of each page I upload, and then bind the middle (thus hiding from view a bit more of the middle) You can see their printing guide here for more details, and also refer to this post of mine for more examples. I believe most printers do this too.
Now here is how the layout looked on photoshop in 24x12 format, before I 'cut' them to save as left and right jpegs for uploading to shutterfly
And below are the left and right 12x12 jpegs that I uploaded to shutterfly to produce the printed result shown above. Can you see that for the left jpeg, I shifted the layout slightly to the left when I 'cut' it, and for the right jpeg, I shifted it slightly to the right? So there is about 3/8ths overlap on both sides, such that after shutterfly does their trimming (approximately at the red line), the final result printed will match up in the middle.
click on the image to enlarge
ANNOUNCEMENT!
Yes I have an announcement to make! You know, I don't really think of myself as a template designer, more of a layout designer who turns them into templates, and feel so privileged that I get to have this small and personal blog and blogstore. So I had never thought of having a creative team, but when it comes to this someone whose layouts I really admire, and have snagged many to show off on my blog, and who has become a friend through many emails and help she gave me, I asked, and she agreed, and I'd like to introduce you to my new CT, the talented Christie Stearns! She is also known as Digital Daisy on forums, and she is the one behind the fabulous Handpicked Freebies blog site. Do say hi to her, you can find her personal blog here, and her many beautiful layouts here, and of course I've snagged more to show you here! Don't you just love her great photos, sense of colors, her choice of elements and papers, and clean and elegant style? I especially love the Wedding Day layout. Thank you Christie! Thanks for being on my team!!
Well I myself haven't done any new double pages, but did finally find all my files from 2008's freebies to pack into Template Pack 3 - these are in the store here. My favorite layouts of this lot are the 2nd layout on the left of us on Empire State Building (!) and the left, bottom row layout of the boys hanging out together - love that we captured those precious moments! You can click on image to enlarge the view. But may I brag - the SNOW in Central Park layout (top right) was published in CK last Jan! :P
Click on image to enlarge
This template is now available as a set in the store HERE