Cards Cards Cards

It had been nearly a month since I made cards! I hardly could believe it myself! The first one was really difficult to produce just because I felt very out of practice.  I pushed the products from the February kit on my table around a long time before I decided to cut out the sentiment that came on a photo paper.  Then I came up with this basic design.  Happiness :)

The rest became easy because I just wanted to make cards with variation on the same design: a base, a tag, and something on the tag.  So here are the other three that I came up with using the kit.  I borrowed one tag and few chipboard buttons from previous kits. Back on the cardmaking roll for me :)

Happy Year of the Dragon

The Lunar new year was on Monday, and for the Chinese people, it is the year of the Dragon. It's supposed to be a very auspicious year just like the year before and the year after :)  I suppose it makes sense.  What's the point of predicting a year to be less than auspicious, eh?

One thing I do know is that I missed out on a major family feast on New Year's eve for the nth time in my life. In fact, the last time I was in China for the Chinese New Year was 2002! Just check out the food...

As to how I celebrated... I bought a Chinese New Year cake and Second Child and I ate some.  Yeah, it was pretty good, but nothing compared to the feast above, right?  Oh well, maybe next year... yeah right! :)

Take My Own "Stock" Photo

Recently I have become absolutely obsessed with group fitness classes.  Ever since my December staycation, I've been going to the gym every day!  Naturally in my head, I am trying to scrap this new hobby of mine :) but I have no pictures to use. 

While reading a fitness article on MSN, I noticed the photos were watermarked and so I went to check out Think Stock.  It is not in my budget to purchase these photos but it sure is a wonderful place to get ideas!  A quick search using the word "exercise" resulted in this image that I could actually emulate! 

Here is what I took over the weekend. Obviously, it is nowhere close to the amazing professional quality of the Think Stock photos, but this is actually way better!  These are actually my shoes!  :)

I can't wait to scrap this photo, right after Zumba! :)

Tutorial: Glitter Ornaments

Every year after Christmas, I pick up a few boxes of empty glass ornaments at Michael's for the following year's holiday season's DIY craft project.  Here's a tutorial on how to make these glass glitter ornaments. 

1.  Gather supplies needed: empty glass ornaments, glitter (in this case, I used Doodlebug glitter), and embossing fluid refill.

2.  Pour 2 teaspoon of embossing fluid into the empty ornament. This was a little hard to photograph, but you can sort of see just how much I have poured into the little bulb.  You can actually dilute the embossing fluid with water to make it stretch.  I recommend diluting it first before pouring into the little glass bulb.

3.  Gently rotate the ornament so that the entire interior of the ornament is coated with embossing fluid. This could take a while if the embossing fluid is thick.  (Yes, some embossing fluid is thicker than others.)

4.  Add more embossing fluid if it is needed. Pour out the extra when it is completely coated.

5.  Pour in the glitter quickly and abundantly and gently but quickly swirl the ornament so the glitter coats the interior of the ornament.  It's important that a lot of glitter hits the wall of the glass ornament at once.  Otherwise, a little glitter hits the wall and the wall loses its stickiness, which means more glitter won't stick.  So to create the most consistent thickness of glitter around the glass wall, use a lot of glitter and work fast.

6.  Pour out any excess glitter.  At this point, the ornament is actually ready to go on your Christmas tree!There's no waiting for drying, it's immediately done.  You can tie some twine on it, put a ribbon on it and hang it up.

7.  Optionally, you can decorate the outside of the ornament if desired with glittered stickers and jewels like I have done here.

Other ideas on decorating the exterior of the ornament: white rubons, permanent markers, glitter pens... I have tied wide ribbons at the top of the ornament, they look really good that way.

I hope this is a helpful tutorial and that you will enjoy making your own glitter ornaments!

Merry Each and Every Day

Hello everyone!  It's Jing-Jing here and I am quite excited to share with you the Christmas cards I made using the December WIP kit! The inspiration for these cards come from the dark kraft die-cut tags included in the kit. 

One of the little Ormalu flapper is "each and every day" which is just way too perfect as a sentiment for any card!  I paired it with the tiny letters from Echo Park and created this card.  A fair amount of 3-d foam adhesive is used, and you can see the depth on the close-up photo.

Next up is a failure apparently.  I asked DH if he could tell for which occasion is this card.  He stared at it for 10 minutes and told me that he had no idea!  Really?  I was a little appalled! Maybe I should have moved the number stickers closer together, but I thought the gingerbread man would have been a good clue that it's a Christmas card?  Ugh, like I said, apparently, this one is a failure!   

I put a couple of 3-d foam adhesive behind the little number flags to make them stay "flapped."

Lastly, I have this relatively obvious holiday card using three tiny tags.  I wonder if the non-traditional colors are what threw DH off?  Regardless, I have thoroughly enjoyed making these cards and sharing with you.  And if you got the December main kit from WIP, do share with us your creations, especially if you made holiday cards! :)

Showing off My United Way Wares

Each year, my company has a United Way drive in October.  There are always so many fun activites, raffles, lunches, bake-offs, and of course auctions!  My division has had an online auction for the last 10 years and one of the ways I participate is by donating crafty goods to this auction each year.  After wishing that I had been more organized for the last several years, I got organized this year and had listed over 20 lots of crafty goods for auction on the first day.  Here are some of the stuff I put up for auction that ends today actually!

Various alteration projects I have made over the  last year for various design teams...  






and lots of cards... here are a couple of them...




The auction ends today at noon, I estimate all of my stuff will fetch around $120 for United Way!!  I hope I make that goal! :) 

One Leafy Sew Cute Calendar Paper, Three Ways

Included in the October kit is this adorable KI Memories' diecut paper.  I maximized its usage by stretching it out onto three projects!  It takes just a little bit of pre-planning.

First of all, there is this layout.  I trimed two sides (top first, left next) of the paper and used the rest of the big sheet for this layout.

Next, I used the trimmed off edge (top) and used it as a border on this next layout.

Lastly, I had enough left over and made this card with the left edge of the label paper! 

So you see, one label diecut paper is stretched onto three projects, one way to maximize supplies!  Do you have any tips on stretching your supplies?  Please share!

October Project Kit

I see that the October main kit has sold out but there are project kits left for grabs!  I created with this kit this past weekend and I can't wait to share my projects with you when they are revealed.  Meanwhile, check out a couple of extremely simple cards I made using scraps from this kit!

I used mostly the scrap leftover papers and some SRM stickers to create these simple cards.  School has started and I need to replenish 'thank you' cards for teachers :)  And I personally find this project kit just way too perfect for school projects :) 

So get yours before this sells out as well!! 

The Big "&" and Handwriting

I wanted to do something with that big "&" we got in our kit.  In doing so, I also indulged, perhaps a tad excessively, in my love for patterned papers.  Yep! I got this layout covered from head to toe in patterned papers, lol. 

When I am scrapping some photos for no "specific reasons," I like to journal in Chinese.  I hardly do it otherwise because it's not my preferred language!  It was a struggle to write these lines. I had to look up the dictionary several times to not write the characters incorrectly (kinda like misspelling).  However, I do it because I would like them to have a sample of my Chinese writing when they are old and gray and I'm long gone :)  I have one written letter from my paternal grandmother and I treasure the writings because that's all I have from her. 

The swirly border is created with Crate Paper's diecuts in the kit.  I added some of the flowers and circles onto my layout with 3-d foam adhesives.  A pearl here and a pearl there adorn some of their centers. 

That's it from me today, I hope it's not patterned paper overload for you.  More importantly, do write in your own handwriting in your scrapbook pages.  I know how I feel about my parents and my grandparents' handwriting, so surely, one day, my kids will feel that way about mine...

Use Your Tickets

One of the staples in WIP kits are tickets, tags, baker's twine and other fun hand-made items from Trish (like these adorable crabs in the sold-out August main kit!  I started this layout really wanting to use these items together. You can say that I had a goal :)  Not that you need a ticket to dine anywhere on the cruise, but I thought I would try that theme.  I was going to title the layout "Ticket to Dine" or something to that effect until I settled on the present title :)  I was pretty excited! I do love me a good title! Check out those GIANT hotdogs in front of my kids.  Is it me or that thing is almost as big as her face?!  lol. I had to use an arrow sticker to point to it :)





So let's brainstorm some ticket(s) related subjects and titles!  Yes, a layout can begin with a single drive to use a ticket as an embellishment and go from there. :)  Please add yours to the comments, I'd love to get more ideas!

• Hot Ticket
• Just the Ticket
• That's the Ticket!
• Dream Ticket
• Meal Ticket
• One-Way Ticket
• Hot Ticket
• Big Ticket
• Wolf Ticket

Summertime, Vacation Time...

I am so inspired by the last two blog posts here by Trish and Jamie! Their travel mini-albums are absolutely legendary! I have just arrived home after a trip out East visiting friends! I am looking forward to using their examples and making my own mini-album! Meanwhile, I am going to share a few photos from my trip...

Speaking of visiting friends, here is one of them, our gracious hostess Aubree. We were eating water ice, apparently a must-have in New Jersey :)

I did not have a single piece of chocolate at the Sweetest Place on Earth. I am simply not a fan of chocolates.  Now show me some sausage...

Yeah baby!  Like these awesome links...  Pennsylvania Dutch breakfast!

Covered bridge in Lancaster County, very romantic indeed...

Jersey Shore, hot hot hot! 

Philly cheesesteak at Pat's, delicious!

Independence Hall...

Sweet sound of liberty!

Now here's to hoping that these pictures will find themselves into a mini-album of sorts in the near future. I will surely share that one :)