The fragility of life.

Today's post is a poignant reminder of the fragility of life. Way back in January, I was sharing with you projects I made for my cousin's wedding. It was such a joyous occasion - a story of love between a couple and the merging of two families.

In late February, my cousin's mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. She was responding well to treatment but deteriorated rapidly following an infection late last month. It was hard watching my fave uncle lose his wife of 26 years.

It took me a while to get started on scrapping these happy photos. It seemed wrong to scrap celebratory photos when we were all in mourning. But it's important that my uncle and his two girls remember my aunt when she was truly happy and radiant - the wedding day of her first-born - rather than her last days being ravaged by this insidious disease.

Loss is hard. Savour each and every moment you have with your loved ones, my friends.

Supplies: Artful Delight May 2012 kit, buttons, mist.

Suit up!

Today's layout features my cousin's husband and his entourage. Looking all spiffy in suits. Suit up! [Ahhhh...I love men in suits...unless it's ill-fitting or in a ridiculous "it hurts my eye!" colour, that is! *LOL*]

A really quick layout using goodies from Artful Delight's May 2012 kit....[I'm the guest designer for May and made 9 layouts with tons left over!]. Check out the groom's boutonierre and that beautiful handmade bouquet? *winks* I made them! :)

A girl really knows how to tug at heartstings...

When my niece came along after nephews #1, 2 and 3, I decided that I wasn't going to be overly attached to this kid. Being an overzealous aunt is hard work and I would love to get my weekends back! *LOL* But of course, a girl really knows how to tug at heartstrings, to draw you in with her charm....

Plus I can never resist a smart kid. Damn. I love that at 14 months.... she remembers what I taught her last week, can already participate in roll call [to ensure the kids are alive and kicking, I do a roll call and the nephews respond with "alive" to indicate all is well], says "yes" when I ask if she wants to eat or play, claps her hands and smiles when I sing "happy birthday", can roll the ball to me perfectly, can "high-five" me, can climb up and down a couch and entertain herself for at least an hour and falls asleep within 10 minutes of hearing my melodious voice singing "Sing a song of sixpence" [okay, okay...the melodious part is pushing it...*LOL*].

Just a fun layout using this month's Artful Delight kit...the doodling with mists was a total accident....I tried to remove some dried paint particles and got streaks that looked like it was done by a kid with crayons...so I just went along with it. Kind of like the "fun" vibe it adds to the layout. What do you think?

Entering this for the splatter challenge at Moxie Fab World.

Supplies: Artful Delight May 2012 kit, Maya mists, EK success punch, buttons, ribbon, brown pen, stick.

P/s: If you are playing along with The Three Cool Chicks, you have until 31st May to upload your creations for a chance at some prizes! :)

Mr Bruise Yam

Meet Mr Bruise Yam. Aka nephew #2. One week after he was bitten on the cheek, he had a toy thrown at him, hence the bruise. Can't believe my sweet littlest nephew #3, J, could be so "violent" eh? *LOL* It's certainly dangerous to play with siblings these days...

The faux magnifier is a broken "fishing" net toy.... a used envelope as a mat...

Playing along with the challenge at Scrap for help.

Supplies: Crafter's Workshop stencil, Maya mists, SRM stickers, Prima canvas letters, Pink Paislee patterned paper, Jenni Bowlin border stickers, brads, twine, photo turns, black pen, white pen, used envelope, broken "fishing" net toy.

The gangster gang: the fire hydrant edition!

So last week, you met the gangster gang *winks*.... this layout features them [my nephews] posing with the fire hydrant. Yeah...they were still very hyper after an hour at the playground [except for little J who was really tired] and posed with a few inanimate objects on the walk home...*LOL*

I had fun making and misting the background for my little "scene". I added some clay strawberries and a wooden cat [from a keychain] and made a signboard from ice-cream sticks.

A little stamping on the canvas banners...

Supplies: Artful Delight May 2012 kit, Prima mask and canvas letters, SRM stickers, Technique Tuesdays stamps, Maya mists, ribbon, various embellishments, brown pen, twine, safety pin, brad.


I love that this layout incorporates a lot of my fave things - white cardstock, misting and masking, stickers, banners and fun dimensional elements to create a "scene"....so I'm linking to The Studio's favourites challenge.


P/s: Happy weekend friends! If you have time, come play along with LESSology Challenge #14: Birds of a feather! :)

Cheating with photos...and a challenge winner!

Hello friends!  It does seem like I take a lot of photos of my 3 nephews and 1 niece, eh? Actually I don't. I take more pics of my creative projects! *LOL* But I do try to take some monthly photos and try to stretch them across a few layouts to kind of cover the month...[I tend to write the month and year instead of the actual date...yeah, that is sort of cheating...]

Anyway, I love my scrapbook pages to be of funny moments that would be hilarious to reminisce about years later. Or sweet moments that I want to remember forever. Like this sweet tender moment between a grandma and her grandkids.

To make the layout more "interesting", I added individual pics of my niece S who has just started walking [and evidently refused to look at the camera]...

And of littlest nephew J with that killer smile...:) [Okay, it was hard to keep the kids still for photos with grandma]

Supplies: Artful Delight May 2012 kit, Creative Imaginations stencil, Maya mists, 7 Gypsies stamp, buttons, white pen, blinged butterfly, ribbon.

Inspired by the "smile" challenge at Bird is the word.
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A big thank you to those who played along with my guest Virginia's shopping challenge! The random winner is Victoria L. 

Congratulations Victoria! Please email me so that I can arrange for your RAK to be sent to you. :)

A quick card and an encore presentation...*winks*

Hello there friends! Just a quick card inspired by the challenge at CAS-sual Fridays. Yep, the Basic Grey patterned paper bird appears again...there are lots of them on a 12x12 sheet! *winks*

Supplies: Cuttlebug emboss/die, Basic Grey patterned paper, SRM sticker, ribbon.
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I want to say a big "thank you" to all those who joined us for last week's Three Cool Chicks' workshop - Let's Get Trendy Now!. Please remember to upload your inspired creations to the Flickr group or via the blog comments by May 31 to be eligible for our prizes.

For those of you who missed out, we decided to have an encore presentation just for you. This is a REPEAT of last week's workshop, covering the trends of Banners, Doilies, Confetti, Baker's twine and Woodgrain.

When you sign up, you will
1. Get 5 emails containing 5 PDF attachments with 15 inspired projects,
2. Links to our workshop blog,
3. Links to our Flickr group and
4. Be able to participate in our challenges for a chance at some prizes. Entries close on 31 May.

Just sign up here

Everybody loves leftovers...

For the older [read: frugal] generation, the best part of the wedding is the "after-party"...the one where they get to pack the leftovers! Pictured are my mum and aunt, beaming away because they scored loads of leftovers...everybody loves leftovers! *LOL*

My cousin had one of those international buffet-style wedding dinners where they keep replenishing the trays even after people have stopped eating [probably to make the $130/person price tag seem less pricey]. So when the party was over, there was still plenty of food. And the older folks started to "party" with their leftover containers! *LOL* It was hilarious to watch...so glad I have that on video! *winks*

This layout was made with Artful Delight's May 2012 kit where I'm the guest designer this month. :)

Supplies: Artful Delight's May 2012 kit, Mister Huey's mists, Studio Calico banner mask, iron grid (as a mask), Prima canvas letters, buttons, brown pen.

An ode to friendship...

Here's an ode to friendship! :) I would like to dedicate today's post to my blog pals Julie Tucker-Wolek and Amy Tsuruta, two of the sweetest people I have "met" in blogland. Seriously.

My bestie was up in Phoenix, Arizona last December for a sales conference with no time to do a scrappy stop for me :(...Julie volunteered to go shopping for anything I need and deliver the items to the hotel where my bestie was staying even though she 1. doesn't drive and 2. the scrapbook store is an hour's drive from her home! Amy is always first to respond to my SOS, always sends me happy mail and is my US mailing address! *winks* [sometimes a gal just needs a US mailing address! *LOL*]

When I suggested doing a crafting workshop for our readers, they said "yes" without hesitation! :)

You know how we became pals? Just by returning comments on each other's blogs! Have you met someone nice via blogland? Share your online friendship stories in the comment section! :)

Supplies: American Crafts glitter cardstock and patterned paper, Pebbles patterned paper, SRM sticker.

P/s: I'm way behind in commenting...just got back into the country last night...will catch up soon! Meanwhile, happy weekend! And for those who signed up for the Let's Get Trendy Now! workshop, get cracking on those creative projects...there are prizes to be won! :)

I'm really not that into you, distress stains.

This is the layout that made me realize that I'm not really into distress stains. Seriously. After 10 bottles. *LOL* Tim Holtz made it look so cool with his demos...I've tried it so many times but just don't like distress stains' diluted consistency. Then Tim had to go introduce the white Picket Fence colour...apparently the key to blending it all. That was my 10th bottle. Still don't like it. Have any of you tried distress stains?

Kind of makes of my leaves look like a three-year old's doodles right? I used a template for the leaves, then decided to colour in with distress stains...didn't quite work so I used some watercolour crayons to try to "salvage" the leaves...*LOL* Oh well, it does seem to go well with the fake blooms eh?

I used the sketch at Creative Scrappers. [Photos: My cousin and her husband]

Supplies: Crafter's Workshop Balzer Designs template, Maya mists, 7 Gypsies velvet blooms, Prima paper blooms, Heidi Swapp chipboard, SRM stickers, Ranger distress stain, ink and stickles, Sharpies,  brads, watercolour crayon, ribbon.

P/s: Don't forget to play along with my guest Virginia's shopping challenge....the prize is a $15 gift certificate to The Crop Shop....it ends on Friday!  

 

The gangster gang story.

Me: Okay boys. We need to cross the road. Let's hold hands. Keep close to me. [nephew #2 & #3 do as told for fear of being kidnapped due to "horror" stories told by their aunt Y..aka me.]

Nephew #1: No! I'm not holding hands with anyone.

Me: [taking the soft approach] Come on, we are the "holding hands" gang. [totally lame music plays in the background in symphony with the totally uninspiring gang name] 

Nephew #1: I'm not joining your gang! I'm going to have my own gang. 

Me: Huh? Who's going to join your gang? These two are in my gang.

Nephew #1: It's okay. You can all be in two gangs. Your gang and my gang.

Me: What's the name of your gang?

Nephew #1: The gangster gang.

Me: *LOL*

Yes, my nephews can be pretty entertaining sometimes. :) Anyone wants to join the gangster gang? We need more members...*LOL*

Playing along with the mist mania challenge at ScrapFIT.  

Supplies: Basic Grey patterned papers, Crafter's Workshop Balzer Designs template, Maya mists, SRM stickers, Prima canvas letters, black pen, various brads. 

P/s: We're into Day Two of our fun little workshop. You can still join in ...just sign up! :) Don't forget to play along with my guest Virginia's shopping challenge....the prize is a $15 gift certificate to The Crop Shop....it ends on Friday!   

I love re-organizing my craft supplies for the "surprises" I might find. :)

Ahhh... I love re-organizing my craft supplies for the "surprises" I might find. [Read: stash I didn't even know I had]. Guess what I found? This 2x2 inch frame and memory glass set... perfect for this sweet picture of my littlest nephew J.  :)

I had to keep everything relatively flat so that I could close up the frame so I used some rub-ons and stickles for a bit of sparkle. Then added a jump ring and a star charm. Don't you just love a simple and quick craft project?

Supplies: Ranger frame and memory glass and stickles, Sassafras patterned paper, Craft Affair rub-ons, jump ring, charm, chain.

P/s: Don't forget about my guest Virginia's shopping challenge...it ends on Friday! :)

A tag on a card...and some challenge winners! :)

So the obsession with tags continues....this time I put my tag on a card! *winks*

I love adding ribbon tabs...great way to use up those really small pieces of ribbon and add a pop of colour to your project.

And you might have already noticed, I really enjoy twirling twine for a bit of "artistic" texture. :)

Playing along with the challenge at CAS-ual Fridays.

Supplies: Crate Paper and Basic Grey patterned papers, Ranger distress ink, ribbon, lace, sticker, twine.

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A big "thank you" to those who played along with my guest Sonia's recycling challenge. They were all so good that Sonia had such a hard time narrowing down the winner...so she picked 5! Yes, these fabulous five will be featured on Sonia's blog! :)

1.Suzan Von Essen 

  2. Katy D 

3.Ujjwal

4.Snehal

 5.Khadija

Congratulations ladies! Sonia will be contacting you via email about your guest feature posts.

P/s: Happy weekend friends! :)

The protective big brother.

In contrast to the sibling rivalry between nephew #2 and nephew #3, there is this sweet relationship between nephew #1 and his baby sister. She's new to this "let's all get clean in the tub" business so he's very protective of her.

 

He seriously goes into "big brother protective overdrive" mode. Yep, she's trying to assert her independence by getting away from him while he's like "Hey, stay close to me!". *LOL*

A cluster of cute brads and some twine action...

Supplies: Crafter's workshop template, Maya mists, Sassafras patterned paper, the twinery twine, Prima canvas letters, Ranger stickers, K & Co chipboard, SRM stickers, black pen, ribbon, brads, black pen.

Playing along with the challenge at Scrap it with a song.

P/s: Have you signed up for the Three Cool Chicks workshop yet? *winks* And don't forget about my guest Virginia's shopping challenge! :)