Layout Inspiration

I love seeing layouts made from the templates, it's amazing how they are transformed into unique layouts in each one's own style. I have been 'collecting' a lot of these layouts that have been shared with me,  love to share some major inspirations!

Thank you to all the ladies for sharing, sorry I held onto to some of them for so long! :P

(Reply to comment on my last post, hsmom asked which app my dh uses on his android phoe to capture    his 365 phosos: The android app my dh uses is 365 photos - it does not present the view as well as my iphone app, but it's functional in terms of capturing the photo, tracking them by days on calendar, and being able to export for my scrapping use, so good enough!)

First up, a lovely scene of gift-giving by Anja Breuer

Here is an  amazing scene from the Netherlands, Grid Doerenkamp shares the story behind it: 

 In our village we started a new tradition last year: a crib-walk. Lots of families put a christmas crib outside their house or in the window. Some dedicated women put them all together on a list and made a nice route to walk past each of them. Last year we did three days with each  a two-hour-walk over the whole route! This year there will be even more cribs to be seen, ca. 130 families participate - us included, of course!  It's fun to see how different the cribs all are. Some are big, some tiny, some have only three figures and a cabin, some show a whole landscape with mountains and houses and even a train, some are made with dolls and some with Playmobil. It's really nice to see and I have photographed them all. Some of them are seen on my layout. The village in the background is our village where we live.

And the following are just so cute layouts by Kim, who also did the fabulous LOVE layout which I posted in last year's post here. Love the photos of her kids and how her layout focuses on them!

Karen Mathre does an amazing amount of layouts all the time of her family and so much that they do together:

and this sweetie-pie layout and the yummy one next are both by Marlyn Ramirez from the Philippines!

And here are some amazing layouts by Michelle Rice of her a Round the World trip via Russia, Mongolia and China!

Here's a cute 'scary' layout by Aimee Hernandez

Next is this lovely happy layout by Kathryn :)

And be charmed by this vacation layout by 'Be Charmed Photography'!

And then there are the always awesome layouts with awesome photos from Tawn  @Homemakin' Girl

Thank you to all you wonderful ladies for sharing these layouts with us!

Project 365 + Project Life!

First I would like to wish all who celebrate the Lunar New Year a Blessed Lunar New Year!! We are in the midst of  hectic and wonderful celebrating with family and friends and having a great time meeting especially our extended family, including my cousins, their children and grandchildren!

Yes! After a few months enjoying Ali Edwards' Project Life pages and camping at Becky Higgins blog for the last few weeks, deliberating how I will go about it, I have jumped in onto Project Life, and am loving it!

When I finally made the decision in the first week of Jan, I went straight into Amazon, bought the Turquoise edition, the orange Clementine binder, and photo pockets B & F because everything else was out of stock, and I WANT to get started! Then I had to pay an incredible (Shhh!) amount of shipping for it to be shipped to Singapore. Last week just before my stuff arrived, I realised that Project Life is available in Singapore (silly me!) and ran down to Scraplicious to purchase photo pockets A and the 12X12 pockets, and I was all set! 

And here's my Cover page - scraplifting from Jennifer Woodbury's page featured on Becky's blog.

I was very happy to include our family's favorite verse Micah 6:8, using the word art I made for our living room! Also used the curvy outlined label from 'I like you' by Lauren Grier (recolored) used twice below - printed, cut out and adhered onto the Project Life cards.

I love that we can include physical memorabilia in PL, which I miss in making digital albums, scanning them is not quite the same.

And remember these pages from my Project 365 in 2009? We love that album for capturing everyday life!

Now I only want one album for the year, and it must all be do-able, tell our stories of our 2012 without too much time and cost .... putting all of these desires together, after much deliberation, this is my plan for my 2012 Project Life album:

• capture daily 365 photos  in fortnightly 12x12digital  layouts to be printed out and slot into Project Life Binder
• print 3x4 or 4x6 of the everyday life photos that I want to give special mention + journal on the PL journal cards, and slot into the photo pockets 
• include memorabilia using the photo pockets 
• add 12x12 digital layouts for special events or memories as I feel like it 

Here's my first fortnight's Photo 365 layout - I love how it turned out :) I think I will be able to keep this up !

Credits: Background paper from Digital Design Essentials, camera stamp by Listgirl, date word art by Lauren Reid, corners by Lauren Grier, and alpha by Lili  + Yin Template 290 B.

Have made eight of such 12x12 templates, they contain 15 or 16 photos each, to make up a month, I will be  keeping the embellishment minimal so they don't take too much time, and focus on the photos and journalling- the set is available in the store in case you are interested in joining me in the fortnightly layouts - we will complete the year in 24 layouts, how's that?

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Thanks to Steph's article on Project 365 on The Daily Digi, I found and downloaded an App that is really helping me keep up with P365, using my iphone to take and keep track of the daily photos. This is the one I use: PROJECT 365 but they all work quite similarly. Here's my month's photos so far in calendar view:

It's working so well I've persuaded dh and the boys to download the android equivalent so they too can take photos from their point of view, and be incorporated in our family's 365 layouts!

I also hope to use our Project Life album to capture and be our family journal for reflections, family devotions, prayers and anything else that speaks to us as a family. On the first of January, we spent a bit of time talking about our One Little Word (we did it last year too but I failed to capture it on a layout). I printed out four copies of the word list from Ali's blog and each of us had a highlighter pen to circle the word(s) that speak to us. Now I'm able to incorporate them into our PL album!! I love that with PL, we can be a lot more up to date with capturing the everyday and the now, and can flip through them as the year progresses. I hope this will be meaningful for the whole family.

And finally, I am in the midst of finishing up our 2011 album, there are probably about 10 more layouts to go, and these are two of them, just quick and simple layouts, templates are being shared below.

These are now available as part of Template Pack 7 in the store. Thanks for your interest!

 Do share how you plan to capture 2012 memories, and if you have layouts to share, email them to me at yindgs at yahoo dot com dot sg, I will choose some to post on my blog. Thank you so much!

Blessed Christmas! “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.” (Romans 5:1 NLT)
May you know and experience the Reason for the season - we are the reason for His Coming! We are blessed indeed!

I remembered this video that Tracey shared last year, it is so wonderful to have a joyful moment of worship and praises amid bouts of shopping and present frenzy :)

We are just back from Beijing, we had a great, great time. I managed to limp all over Beijing, even up the magnificent Great Wall. Here are some pics from our trip

Blessed Christmas everyone!

What do our scrapbooks tell about us?

Firstly thank you all for your support and comments during my stint on The Digi Files 35, and the sale in my store, really appreciate you so much!

Yes, I'm afraid I  fractured my little right toe over a week ago, and have been on medical leave from work, trying to rest it and let it heal. I greatly appreciate the rest, but the injury came at a bad timing, as we are due to leave for Beijing on 7 Dec. We can't cancel (booked the cheapest no cancellation airtickets) so to Beijing I shall go, hobbling, limping, or otherwise! Unfortunately we had planned skiing as well, I will have to sit that out :(

But the enforced rest gave me time to plan the trip and to enjoy lots of scrapbooking! I did some layouts from our daily lives for our 201 1 Album  using the templates from my Template 262 Album Set

Above: The boys are on holidays now and on the computer everyday (gasp) We limit them and schedule in games time everyday - great family times - we play to win! (wink)

Credits: Paper from Keen by A Pennington, Spinner by Amanda Carlson, alpha by Designs by lili

Below: Jared has graduated from Primary School! By the way his final PSLE results were great, praise be to God! It ensured his place in the difficult to get in six-year integrated program school. However he was not able to appeal to R's school, where he had hoped to join his brother. We encouraged him to trust that the Lord knows best, He makes no mistakes! and J has accepted this with enthusiasm.We are just so thankful :) This layout is made to remember his graduation and tell him how proud we are of him!!

Credits: A+ by The Tattered Pear, Hat by Chelle's Creation, Paper by Jennifer Barrette

Above: Ryan continues to do extremely well in school, surpassing our expectations time and again! 4.7 GPA!! How did he do it? Made a layout to celebrate his results and how proud we are of him too!

Credits: Paper from Bloom by A Pennington, paint by EM Designs, word art by Lauren Reid

Above: Found these photos in my iphone of those days spent revising for Jared's exams. Lovely pics of father and son hunched over Math problems, just love the sight of them :)

Credits: Pencil, shaving and scribble by Rachel B Designs, abc word art by Holly Designs, paper by Simple Girl Scraps

Below: During the hols, we allow them more gaming time, and sometimes dh join them as well. I will not be able to understand but it is amazing how much bonding they can have over these games!

Credits: Paper by Jennifer Barrette, console by Kate Hadefield

What do our scrapbooks tell about us?
You know, as the year come to a close, I reflect on my scrapbook pages, and wonder:
1) Did I capture all of our lives this year and who we are in my scrapbooks? and
2) What do my scrapbook pages tell of us and our lives?

To Question 1: I must say I scrapbook a disproportionate # of pages of our travels, just because so many photos are taken and they are such memorable family time and journeys. Of our daily lives I have captured quite a bit, including a Week in the Life this year, but what is missing is what each of us do outside the family, at work, at school, eg of dh and his tennis, of the boys with their friends, as I rarely have photos of these. Mental note to include some of these pages! 2nd note to self: our faith is such an important part of us and I must add/include pages that reflect how God is involved in our lives.
How about you, do you feel there are any aspect missing from your pages?

To Question 2: If I am a stranger looking at our pages this year I would probably find this family is one that loves their travels, one that has a close family bond, and one that spends a lot of time studying, lol! Yes unfortunately we live in a society that gives opportunities based on a somewhat narrow definition of meritocracy and academic results have become so important. Dh and I try hard not to join the pressure-cooker system, we will push the boys and are strict to the extent that we know is within their abilities, but we try hard to expand their world view, other interests, apart from studies. We believe our children are God's gifts to us as much as we are His stewarts to raise them to know Him, love Him, live their lives in His Will and for His Glory. So we want as much to train them in Godly counsel and discipline, as to enjoy the beauty and joys God has created for us .... hhmmm, much prayer required to stay on track! The boys might not agree though ... couple of years ago, J went up during Sunday School worship to ask for corporate prayer - his prayer request? " My parents are too strict." !!!  LOL.  We press on...

Do not, however, think we are those overpowering parents producing over-achieving kids aka Tiger Mom  ( Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua - she has controversial views) - case in point: I have failed in getting both our boys to learn to play the piano or any musical instrument for that matter. R made it to grade 1 and J did not even touch grade 1, before we heaved a collective sigh of relief and agree they just don't have them musical cells and let it go. :D  To this day dh regrets though and can't help thinking that I (being the one who can play) could have pushed them a little harder and they will  now be able to enjoy making music (something dh did not have a chance to learn)... I guess we will never know...?

More Layouts
Well, I digress... we certainly have too many travel pictures, and here are some more! Used my old templates to do these next ten layouts, and went with white background to simplify further, completing all ten in about 3 nights!
These layouts are all  from the time we spent at the World Expo in Shanghai last year, it was an amazing experience for our museum loving family, it was literally a World Museum for us! For 3 days we pounded the huge compound, trying to get into as many pavillions, sample as many types of foods, shop at as many markets, watch as many performances, experience as much as we can!!

Click on image to enlarge
See below left how Jared was so tired out he fell asleep at one rest stop (Template 22)

Various Pavillions showcasing China's technological advances (Template  93)

And only at the World Expo we get to visit North Korea and Iran!! (Template 231)

We spent time in the exhibits of the African, Pacific Islands and Middle East countries, those we might never have a chance to visit (Template 159) see top left pic J again fell sleep waiting for me to do some shopping :D

Had a chance to visit some European and South America countries (Template 85)

Morroco and Turkey were full of culture and mystery (Template 49)

The Italy and Sweden pavillions were so classy and chic! (Template 91)

Then we had a chance to  visit the China Pavillion, we begged to be let in on the last day of our trip,     having not been able to acquire entry passes (due to over-popularity) and the guards let us in! (Adapted from Template 106 -  this new one is available for download further down as Template 285)

The best exhibits were this animated ancient painting that stretched an entire hall and every person in the painting 'came alive'! And we  got to see the superbly preserved Horse and chariots from Xi Ann! (Template 25)

Magnificent China Pavillion! (Template 75)

All credits for the previous ten layouts: Paint from Painted On by E.M. Designs (this must be the most used resource in my stash!!), crayon scribbles by Brittish Designs, Purple painted background by Corina Nielson (color changed), Globe and pink dots by Kaye Winiecki, postcard stamp and ancient map from Wanderlust by Pink Reptile Designs, pink paint by Something Blue Designs, Paper with writing, flares, wire word art, arrow all from Around the World collab by Sahlin Studio and Brittish Designs

On the same trip last year in June to Shanghai, we also made a sidetrip to visit SuZhou, famed in ancient days for its beautiful gardens and waterways. The city was built on crisscrossing canals, which were used for transportation instead of roads. It is a modern city now, but pockets of of its classical beauty remains:

Credits:  Paper by Chelles' Creations, foliage brush by Tracy Ann

Credits: Paper from Scrap Addicts, paper flower by Sahlin Studios, and leaves by Rachel Young

In the evening we took a break at this traditional tea house and had a game of chinese chess.

Credits: Paper from Lucky Papers by Simple Girl Scraps, leaves by Anna Aspnes, tea leave heart shape by Sahlin Studios and Chess piece scanned in by me

An unforgetable boat trip down the historically rich canal 

Credits: Paper by Simple Girl Scraps, leave art by K Pertiet

Finally, dh had to take these photos of all the bikes we noticed, how they had been lovingly added personal touches, how practical and depended upon they are for all forms of transportation :)

Credits: Paper from Delilah by Allison Pennington 

And while we leave for Beijing, I will leave you with these two 12X12 templates to play with 

This is now available as part of Template Pack 7 in the store. Thanks for your interest!

This is now available as part of Template Pack 7 in the store. Thanks for your interest!

It will be great to hear your comments, I will post from Beijing if I get the chance!