Bad Girls Project 52 Design Team

A few days ago, I received an email from Wendy Rago of Bad Girls, inviting me to design for Bad Girls Project 52 for the next term.

Oh wow!!! I didn't expect this! I have never been in a DT before, never even tried to join one! This is such a surprise!

The announcement has been made on the website and yes, it is real! I am part of the Project 52 DT! And I am pleased that my idol, Jaz, is in the Bad Girls Elite Artistes Design Team! Congrats to her! I learnt a lot from her classes and there's a lot more to learn from her!

I don't know what to expect and eagerly anticipate the projects for the next 6mths. I hope I won't disappoint the Bad Girls!

Photo shoot of Giselle

Giselle is my colleague and she has the most amazing eyes. Every time she talks to me, her eyes sparkle and I am "electrocuted" by her!

My photo gang is always keen to shoot pretty gals so I organized a photo session. This was her first time to be a model and she was excited! She brought 2 friends along and with 8 photographers, we took turns to shoot them.

I don't really fancy adult model shoot and this time, I am more like a chaperon to the girls. We spent the whole morning shooting the gals and they were such good sport, didn't complain about the hot weather at all! (I was the one whining! :p)

Looking at the way she posed, you would never have guessed that this is her first time! She's a natural!

Destressing

Passed the LOs of Ashley and Anson to their mummy today. I am glad that she likes them!

Shortly after, I received an sms from her. This is the message:

"The LOs have a brownish streak. Like someone with dirty fingers touch it. I tried to remove with eraser but cannot."

I opened up the soft copy of the image and realized what she meant. She was referring to the destressing that I did on the LOs! After I explained to her that it is an effect, she laughed at herself for being a layman. I have other friends who saw my LO with destressed photos and thought I did some Photoshop editing to get the burnt effect.

When I first learnt about this technique, I didn't quite like it initially. But now I find it useful to make the photos, chipboards or alphabets etc. stand out more and reduce the 'rawness' of the paper cutting of the edge.

A photographer's children

One day, YM complained that I took so many photos of kids but not of his children. I looked at him incredulously and asked if he is serious?!

YM himself is a photographer who is armed with a Canon 5DMk2 and a 1DMk4. He takes wedding photos, either pre-wedding, actual day or casual couple shoot. He is also one of my 10 wedding photographers. Check out his portfolio here.

Why does he need me to shoot his children? I don't think I can do a better job than him! But when his family came visiting, I took out my camera and took some photos.

His daughter Kayla is very used to the camera, not self-conscious at all!

She is full of energy!

Cayden is still too young to know better but I only managed to take this photo of him before he fell asleep. He looks like a caucasian!

I hope these photos pass his mark! I took 7 photos in total so I hope he will give me 7 distinctions! (He has so many "Mark" camera whereas I only have 7D=distinction camera!) :p

Another LO for Anson

Mummy Jin saw the photos and LO and messaged me this morning. She wanted more photos of Anson in the LO.

I don't like to change the design after I finished a LO. So I decide to make another LO.

Here it is, using Sassafras papers. I found out that I still have so many of them! I tried to sew on the bottom clouds with the curves. Need more practice!

Hope she likes it. I better pass the photos and LOs to her soon before I forget again!

Spinner

What is that? My colleague asked me when he saw this photo on my laptop. He thought it is for flying kite.

I bought some thick yarn/thread which is often used at Laines classes. Previously Betty told me where to get it and it really came in a big pack, unwound. Hubby came up with the idea of spinning it like a wheel to wind the yarn faster and he initially stuck a chopstick through it and used another chopstick to turn it. Then I thought of the 7gypsies stand and stuck the spool through it. Voila! We can spin faster this way!

I didn't realize how much yarn there is. After winding one spool, there are still so much more! What am I going to do with them??

Maybe we should go and fly kite with it! :)

Conquering the sewing machine

Woke up late with an aching back so I took leave today. Hubby has applied leave earlier for his exams so we are both at home.

This morning my eyes kept going up to the top shelf and I took the box down finally. Took the machine out, looked at the manual but gave up and called hubby for help. You know what? He knows how to use the sewing machine! With the help of the manual, he wound the bobbin, pulled the thread through the nooks and holes and set up everything. Amazing!

He explained that the foot controller is like a car accelerator, I can control the speed. He was very afraid that I will hurt myself by accidentally stepping on it while my fingers were near the needle and kept reminding me to turn the sewing machine off first. Hey! I am not such a bad driver even though I don't like to drive! But I know he meant well!

And now I present you my 1st work from my sewing machine. Tada! Not so bad right?!

Sewing on paper is easier than sewing on fabrics! The funny thing is I used to be quite good at sewing at home economics class. I hate cooking then but now, I can cook better than sew!

Fabric flowers and buttons

I have some scrap fabrics and my Japanese colleague taught me how to make a flower out of it. As the scrap is at the edge, it won't fray at all. I left it in the office so I didn't take a picture of it.

This made me interested to make flowers out of fabrics so I google and tried out some other methods as seen on some blogs. I am not very good at sewing so these are what I came up with. The buttons are covered with fabrics with a simple tool I bought from Daiso.

I still do not know what to do with them! I just think that they are very pretty and I like to look at them! hehe! The fabrics are all designer fabrics and they are not cheap.

I made the crochet flower myself. I learnt to crochet when I was a child and I could make tissue paper box cover, coasters, hats, dresses etc when I was young. A few years ago I revived this 'trend' in my office and we crocheted handphone covers. Then we moved on to cross stitch and baking and cooking.

About a year ago, when hubby and I went to get a vacuum cleaner for our flat, I saw a sales person demo on a sewing machine. I cannot sew but she said there's a intro class for me to attend. Hubby bought it for me.

That sewing machine is still in the box, unopened, high up on the shelf. I did not attend the class, so I still do not know how to operate a sewing machine!

Hakka lunch

Today is the 7th day of the Lunar New Year, also known as everybody's birthday day.

Our Wong family went to my uncle's house where Grandma cooked thunder tea with the help of auntie and my mum. Thunder tea is our traditional Hakka meal consisting of rice, vegetables and a soup made from sesame seeds, peanuts and vegetables. Recently this cuisine has been introduced into some food courts and hawker centres but those cannot be compared to Grandma's. Our soup is not greenish in color and is more flavorful.

Look at the spread of vegetables!

We have been eating this since young. Consists of mostly vegetables, the preparation involves chopping and frying the vegetables and grinding the ingredients for the soup. We do these manually, without any machine.

How do you eat this? You put rice into the bowl and just pile the vegetables into your bowl. Then you pour the soup over everything and start eating! Delicious and very healthy.

We had a good time eating and playing with the dog. We are all dog lovers and grew up with dogs. This is Raven with my cousin.

Chloe likes dogs too!

She was very engrossed playing with the dog, the oranges and the new year goodies! A very happy child!

Prima's NEW Product Pick

Do you love Prima as much as I do?? Check out their new products!

I already bought the papers, the pearl and rose swirl, the chipboard stickers, the roses and many other bling blings!

I hope I will use them instead of hoarding them! Sometimes when the things are too pretty, I can bear to use them!

Anson and Ashley

With my sister and cousin both pregnant for the 1st time and due next quarter, I am looking forward to take photos of my nephews! Yes both of them are boys but my cousin cannot accept the fact and is still hoping for a girl!

I have many friends with babies and small kids and I often bring along my camera when I visit them or at gatherings. My friend, Jin, gave birth to her 2nd child last Oct and I took these pics of Anson when he was 10days old. Due to some medical condition, it was not advisable for her to get pregnant but she persevered and gave birth to 2 healthy children. Both her pregnancies were not easy so her children are a godsend to her.

This is baby Anson. He must have known that I am taking photos of him secretly when he was sleeping and gave me the tongue!

Look at him posing at such a young age!

Her 1st born is an active little girl who insisted on 'chopping' her stamp on my hubby's big toe! Look at her with a stamp mark on her face!

Congrats to Jin and James! Will get to see them and many other friends with their children next weekend!

Updated:

Did this LO using mostly October Afternoon papers. Going to pass it to Jin next week! Anson will be almost 5mths old already!

More than words

I always have a love for words. Though I believe a picture speaks a thousand words, I also feel that words are equally important and cannot be replaced with an action or an image sometimes. I feel that words often complement a picture, bringing out the inner meaning of an image. Working in a company that is all about imaging, I not only have to deal with images but also with words, either for correspondence or for marketing our products.

Words are made up of alphabets and we are spoilt for choices on the types of fonts, sizes and colors in the scrapbooking world. I went shopping yesterday and bought more alphas!

Look at my collection of American Crafts Thickers alone!

I like to have words on my LO to describe it. Though some people might like others to interpret their work, I like to put in some words to show how I feel about the photo and the LO. Scrapbooking, to me, is an extension of my photography, describing and recording the moments and memories of the photos.

My hubby is not one that is good with words. But I am!

I found this quote and love it!

"Gentle words, sweet to touch, make one feel loved so much." - Joyce C. Lock

Back to work tomorrow

Our company will be opened tomorrow, a day later than most companies. When will we have a long holiday again? Next year???

After so many days of waking up late, I am not sure if I can wake up on time for work tomorrow morning!

I better have a early night today. Good night!

CNY visit

Today my good friend came with his family to our house to pay us a visit this Chinese New Year.

This boy came and left many fingerprints and drool all over our house!

But we don't mind, really. He totally won us over with his smile and good-natured self. Even when hubby was cleaning up the house afterwards, he did not complain but reminded me to keep my 'decor' to my room when he comes next time.

He is now crawling and grabbing everything! Oh gosh! Cannot imagine when he starts to walk! Hehe!

Universal Studios Singapore preview

We were very lucky to get tickets to the preview of Universal Studios. I have been to Dreamworld and Movieworld in Gold Coast during my university days, Disneyland in Anaheim and Tokyo but never been to a Universal Studios.

The rides were not operational yet but we could walk around the theme park and get a 1st look of it. There were many friendly staffs waving and greeting us as we toured the park. The shops and restaurants were opened and with our tickets, we were able to redeem a combo meal at any of the restaurants.

We chose Mel's Drive-In, which is a 1950's drive in diner that serves all-American burgers. This is our Valentine's Day dinner, complimentary from Resorts World! :)

The fries and the apple crumble are good.

Can't wait for Universal Studios to open officially! I want to go on the roller coaster!! We will be back!

Happy Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day!

Today is the Lunar New Year! Valentine's Day falls on the same day!

Don't intend to scrap today but woke up very early and decided to decorate the bird cage I bought from Bangkok. I have been thinking hard how to decorate it but once I started, ideas flowed in and this is the end result!

I used flowers, ribbons, a glittered buttefly and a flurry pom pom (which used to hang on my handphone) on the external.

What to know who are residing in this cage? I used some flurry yards and put my wooden forest animals inside. There is also a bird hanging from the top, which is from my last year's X'mas decor bought at Ikea.

This is how it looks when hanged in front of my wallpaper.

So there you go! This is my sudden burst of inspiration to decorate. :)

Valentine's Day flowers

Went to Papermarket and Yanni gave hubby and I a quick tutorial on how to make accordion flowers.

I prepared the materials and taught some my colleagues how to make them. Here's what we made!

This morning hubby and I made more.

This is my special double layer flower, made by hubby!

These are for family and friends.

We will be having our reunion dinner with my grandma and uncles tonight. Tomorrow is Chinese New Year! And happy Valentine's Day in advance!

Buzz and Bloom tabbed book album

I won the Buzz and Bloom tabbed book kit competition!!!

This competition was in Dec and I submitted my "ME" album, an album documenting things I love, using Buzz and Bloom Hearts album.

I use bright colored papers.

I miss my dog Blinky. He passed away last year.

I love to travel and eat!

I am a happy gal! Can't wait to see what Buzz and Bloom is sending me!

Jelly lens

There are many photographers in my company and we keep each other abreast with photography news, products and software.

Today one of my colleague brought her Jelly Lens. It is actually a lens meant for your handphone camera to create effects.

I tried it out on my digicam and found it works! This is the starburst effect from the jelly lens.

Because my camera lens is wider than the lens, it causes a natural vignette when I did not zoom the lens.

Cheaper and easier to use than a Lensbaby!

Available at Action City. There are different types to choose from!

Printing photo onto paper

Tried this method of printing photos directly onto paper after reading about this on Webster's February Challenge.

I love the effect! My wedding gown looks so vintage and the photo has such a textured feel!

Check out Webster's site for more great LOs!

I think that is enough scrapbooking for this week. Taking a break to clean up this room and get ready for Chinese New Year! Even though we cannot have a big celebration this year, we will still have some gatherings and reunion dinners to go to. Hope my stomach will hold on well and let me eat all the new year goodies! :)

Camera filter

My photography friends and I have a camera filter on ALL our lens. What is the use of a camera filter?

The most common filter is the Haze and UV filter. It basically protects the camera lens. Price of such filter range from low price for a Hoya filter to expensive for a B&W filter. The price is also dependent on the size (diameter) for the type of lens you have.

The filter can sometimes save your lens if you ever drop it. It also minimizes dust and dirt from landing on the lens.

There are also other types of filters which can improve the image quality or enables you to create some special effects.

For those of you who are curious about the shortcut way to shoot the love bokeh, here is MY WAY! You will need the help of a camera filter!

Cut a black circle, big enough to fit into the lens. Make a shape in the middle. It can be a heart or a star etc.

Fit it into your lens and cover with the camera filter. Ensure that no light leaks out.

See??? Very easy!

You must have a camera filter for your lens before you can use this method. It acts as a cover for the love bokeh 'filter'. But it is a bit troublesome to unscrew the filter on and off to put in or take out the black paper. As I am not good at taping things, this works for me.

For the conventional method shown online, go to this link.

Have fun!

Owl always love you!

Due to stomach trouble, I did not go to work these 2 days.

Did some scrapbooking yesterday and cooked some porridge, fish and soup today. Slept a lot due to the drowsy medicine and hopefully I can get to work tomorrow.

Here's a cute owl I found on Cosmo Cricket blog.

Yanni made some pretty flowers at Papermarket! She was kind to offer to teach my hubby to make some. Let's see if he will go this Thurs! :)

A kit for a cause - World Vision

Came across this blog about a Prima kit where the sales proceeds will be donated to World Vision.

Then I saw Lynn mentioning about sharing the shipment cost to Singapore on her blog so I ordered from her for myself and Angeline.

Received the kit recently and this is what I have created.

Thank you Lynn for helping with the logistics of ordering this kit! Hope our small contribution to World Vision helps!

Sweet Rae-lin

I bought some new Prima papers (they are not part of my free 100 papers) and this is one with a ready template. Start to work on it last night with a photo of Rae-lin.

I thought I can finished it up very fast but I added a lot a lot of flowers, doilies and stick-ons. She loves pink so I tried to add in different shades of pink without making it too pinkish.

I hope she and her parents like it! :)

Ippudo Ramen

Read rave reviews about this ramen and told my colleague Bennett, who is a big ramen lover. He has since went there a few times already and today, I finally went.

We avoided the peak lunch hour and went there about 4pm. There was someone queuing before us but we waited only 5mins.

Big chandelier. Doesn't really fit in, I think.

Decor on the wall

Hubby had the seasonal Kyushu ramen.

I had this Akamaru ramen.

Added the egg for $2.

I like my ramen, the soup is very flavorful. But hubby prefers his Kyushu ramen.

We saw many people ordering the fatty pork bun. Next time we shall try it!

The bride and her veil

Got some new Graphics 45 papers last week. Thanks to Yanni for giving me the heads up of their arrival after attending her class!

I am always on the lookout for romantic lines to scrap my wedding pics. Yes I hope I do not have to wait till many many years to finish the album!

This LO is all about me, the Bride! Saw the lady with the veil in the G45 paper and I immediately thought of how this photo will fit in well. Our ROM was at 3pm and I was getting ready and giving myself the once over.

The roses are bought from Thailand and I was happy that they match the color on the LO.

Check out the LO made by Medrey using the same paper. I like it!

Laines challenge - 100 pattern papers

I am so happy! I won Ed's Challenge in January at Laines!

Totally unexpected!

The prize is 100 pieces of pattern papers. Going down to get them this weekend. And more shopping! I want to get those Primas!

Thank you Laines!

Updated:

These are the 100 papers. Wow!!!

I went there expecting to pick up a package of papers and was told to choose them myself! What a surprise! Though these are from the 25 for $10 section, they are good selections! I chose from October Afternoon, American Crafts, Making Memories, Melissa Frances, imaginisce, Creative Imaginations, Cosmo Cricket, Dream Street, Sei etc.

Thanks to Nancy for giving me so many choices and counting the 100 papers and Iverina for helping me check on the vouchers!

And yes, I got the new Primas stuffs!

Love bokeh

Augustine showed me some beautiful photos of love bokeh last week. I was eager to try it!

Kanni tried it before and I should have just borrowed her filter. I tried to make my own but she said it was ugly! Augustine then came up with an ingenious idea and it worked!

I tried it in the office first.

Only those in my company knows where these lights are from!

Had dinner with the photo gang but they were too busy playing with their iPhones!! Look at all the different casing they have.

After dinner they accompanied me to find lights to shoot. I shot while they continued to discuss about their iPhones! *faint

Here are some of my favourite shots.

Bright one with many lights

So colorful!

Guess what are these lights hanging in the air?

From blue color lights

These look like twinkling stars

The heart shape on the right side is not very perfect, not very rounded. But I got the effect I want.

Happy!