December already?

How did time pass so fast? 2 weeks of holidays is almost over and i am left with 25 more days. I must treasure my time well and use it wisely before the next year arrives. It has been good so far, hasnt it? I went to HK and came back recharged and refreshed. I have been staying at home lately, catching up on good dramas and scrapping away. This is life, at least to me. Not going out sometimes is better for the pockets.

Oh well, I will be travelling to Malaysia next week so it will be a good time bonding with the family members. This is the first time we are travelling together since my two nieces were born. Cant wait for it!

How about a layout before I retire for a nap? Recently, i purchased some papers from Crate's On Trend line. I have comtemplated buying this line for the longest time, simply because the papers werent me. Scrappers around me have been saying the line was 'bad' and quite frankly, i agreed. I have always been a huge fan of CP and this has not changed since they released their Restoration line a few years back. I hesistated when i first saw the sneaks online but oh well, every once in awhile.. we need to venture out and try on papers and embellishments that are not norm.

So I started on this layout yesterday and my motto was "THINK LIKE CHRISTINE MIDDLECAMP!" Haha. She is one talented lady and she is really good at layering embellishments and papers. I matted each paper and embellishments with black cardstock and surprisingly, i really loved how it turned out.

It was nice venturing into this line. This is my current favourite picture of B. I have printed tons of this photo and in such rare moments, we can see how serene she looks. (:

;

Also,I am a little late for this posting. Do check out this week's challenge at CSI #48. I had so much fun playing around with patterns and misting. Do join us!

One random thought to share: I changed my laptop today. So it is goodbye to Fujitsu (of 4 years) and hello HP. It was a good deal after all. I will not sulk anymore.

Haha. Have a great week ahead.

Serenade

It is the last week of school before the holidays arrive. I simply cant wait to pack my bags and leave for Hong Kong. It would be great to be back there again, after one year. This week has been jammed packed with so many activities that it got a little crazy. Well, my CGLs got married last night and though it was a long day, I am so glad I was there to experience it all.

In any case, here to share some more layouts from Basic Grey's Serenade collection. Hooked, I must say and I keep playing with those papers and embellishments.

 

Some close up of the embellishments. My latest obsession is to use my craft knife to cut various shapes. That way, I could fill it up with a different pattern paper or in this case, I filled it up with a variety of buttons. I misted some mistable hearts (Pink Paislee) so that it will match the colours. I so love how it turned out.

The next layout was done for CSI #45 challenge. I am in love with this week's colour scheme. I am such a big fan of kraft colours and what better way than to use the Serenade collection again!

 Using more of what you see from the collection, gessoed some of the paper with a mask and added some tissue tapes for texture. I hope it inspires you this week to join us!

Have a great week ahead!

Winner of Giveaway and CSI #44

I am a little early for the giveaway but i figured that I was really tired so I will announce the winner early so that I can retire for the night.

And the winner is ...... *drumroll*

Congrats Joelle!! Please contact me about your mailing details so that I can send your stuff to you asap. The email address is magnette_86@hotmail.com OR you can message me on Facebook.

;

I have some exciting news to share. As you all know, I made it to the design team of CSI: Colors, Stories and Inspirations. It is an online community that has tons of talented scrappers. Like many of you, I normally visit manufacters' blogs for inspiration. I first knew about CSI because two of our local scrappers used to design for them. I knew some of our local scrappers were also members and I decided to check out the site. I was instantly drawn into the community as it was different from other challenge sites I've seen. They were well organised and their challenges were intriguing (Crime Scene Concept). Not long, I decided to join in some of their challenges, my layouts were featured in some of the challenges and you know the rest is history. I applied to join their design team and here I am right now... I am so thankful for this opportunity. 

So are you ready for this week's challenge? In November, our thoughts turn to the holidays and getting together with family and cozying up in our homes, so our theme that will tie our Case Files together this month is "Coming Home." Our beautiful Scene that inspires this week's Case File comes from Stagetecture.
Grab your forensics kits, CSI members, and get ready for some serious sleuthing as we open Case File No. 44.

Here is my take of this challenge...

I chose the background paper from OA Midway collection, cut out dollies from the EP's For the Record 2 collection, die cut a couple of dollies, embellished with some Prima flowers to match the colour scheme and documented 4 things about our friendship. To be honest, I took the longest time to decide how I was going to crack this case. Maybe it was nervousness but I managed to get it done in the end and I love it!

So what are you waiting for? Do join us today at CSI. Check out my DT profile at http://csicolorstoriesinspiration.ning.com/page/our-detectives-aka-our-design-team too!

Phew! Long post, thanks for hanging in with me.
Have a great week ahead.