Saturday, June 28, 2008

Scrapbook 08: Her Name Is

Finally completed the last "hanging" layout I have for princess. Have been working on this for ages and ages.. at least 2 weeks? Have had less and less time to scrap since I've been gearing up for work and of course once I started school it was totally no time. If I am a good girl this will be the last LO till the next holidays le. So many things to do at work! =(

This is the first photo-less layout done. Its meant to show the meaning of Sophie's name - which means Wisdom. How I wish there are chinese characters in scrapbook stuff (stickers, rub ons, etc) then I can do one for her Chinese name as well 沈颂恩.

Complete picture. The visible journalling reads
"Our precious Princess Sophie.. your name means "wisdom". Your daddy chose your name because we hope it will reflect your character as you grow. "for whoever finds wisdom finds life, and obtains favour from the Lord." Proverbs 8:35"

ROFL I realised you can see my school work behind!

There is hidden journaling too on the tag at the top of the page.. the back of the tag reads
" Precious Princess, 6th March 2008, you came and you changed our lives forever."

Front of tag. The heart brad was surprisingly cheap at $2plus for about 100pcs from Popular! Added the stick on crystals from pasar malam at AMK central (it was supposed to be for sticking on handphone kind). The lace flowers are also from a ribbon shop at AMK central. Was $1.80 for one yard which is like 60-70 flowers worth! So I "sapu" all the flower colours they had! Such an eclectic list of sources. There's more.. you will see at the bottom Ingredients list.. hehe..

Back of tag. Used a Hambly cutout. They look really good but limit the amount of text that can be written. =(

Close up of the ribbons on the side. Used some of Keqing's ribbons for this and it turns out really pretty. the eyelets are also hers as I borrowed her eyelet setter to experiment. I also used her needle hole maker to poke through the ribbon to set the flower brads into it. The silver charm is actually a handphone hanging thingy part of a wedding door gift (they give male and female one, of course I used the female one la =)

Close up of flower details on her name plate.

Come to think of it this LO has many "firsts" for me. Its the first time I have tried using so much buttons, first time with a "circle" shape dominating the LO, first time thought of using Bible verse in the jounalling, first one with a tag. Hehe.

Ingredients:
1 x 8 x 8 textured cardstock from DCWV Textured Cardstock stack from KQ
{many pieces} Heidi Grace scraps paper from cutting down other pieces of papers to acheive 8 x 8 size - used for the alphabets.
2 x chipboard alphas by Heidi Grace from Spotlight
1 x chipboard asterisk by Heidi Swapp from MWL
2 x heart brads from Popular
4 x mini pastel round brads from KCK at MPH
8 x mini pastel flower brads from KQ
2 x paper roses from Art Friend
1 x rub on alphas from Art Friend
{many pieces} square crystals from AMK central handphone pushcart - btw its moved alr, so sad, should have bought more =(
{many pieces} round adhesive crystals from AMK pasar malam
{many pieces} round crystals from Daiso the $2 shop (yes! Super worth it!)
5 x eyelets from KQ
6 x narrow ribbons from KQ
1 x handphone hanging thingy from Raffles Town Club wedding dinner (yes its Yeow Kwang's!)
2 x paper/cloth flowers from MWL and Spotlight
2 x flower/butterfly sticker from Spotlight
3 x dimensional roses from online nail art shop (they are actually supposed to be for nails hehe)
1 x flower button from Spotlight
1 x flower button from Queen & Co at MWL
1 x epoxy brad from Kaiser Craft at Creative Hands
1 x Nursery Animals epoxy brad from MWL
1 x chipboard sticker from Cloud 9 at Creative Hands
4 x cardstock sticker from Spotlight
1 x gold puffy heart from ribbon shop at AMK
4 x lace flowers from ribbon shop at AMK
{many pieces} buttons from ribbon shop at AMK and Spotlight
Used craft punch from scrapbook shop at Coronation Plaza to create the tag
1 x Baby Girl ribbon from Tiong Bahru Plaza shop

The source list is so amazingly long:
1. Spotlight
2. MWL
3. MPH
4. Art Friend
5. AMK central handphone pushcart
6. AMK central pasar malam
7. Popular Bookstore
8. Daiso
9. Raffles Town Club
10. Online nail art shop
11. Creative Hands
12. AMK ribbon shop
13. Coronation Plaza scrapbook shop
14. Tiong Bahru Plaza ribbon shop

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Sit Up!

Sophie can support her head pretty well by herself now. So, we tried putting her in her Bumbo seat yesterday. And she loves it! Hehe. Will post up pics later at home. Super busy at work! =(

Update:
Here she is! My irresistible baby.

So happy in her Bumbo chair

Just look at those fat jowls! How not to adore?

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Flip = No Peace

Sophie has succeeded in flipping herself from back to front on Wednesday, and then succeeded in flipping front to back on Thursday. And since then, she has been flipping non-stop! Results in no peace for G and I as we have to keep watch over her every single moment, she could easily flip herself off the bed, or wedge herself into a corner of her cot, etc. Else, the silly girl will get frustrated if there is an obstacle in her flipping path. And sometimes when she is tired of holding her head up she just mashes it into the cot / mattress / pillow below her face. Haha..

Presenting our little flipper:

Flipping in her cot

Flipping with Mummy (who's saying "Look at Daddy, darling!! Look!! Quick Garytakethephotobeforesheflops!")

Flipping with Daddy - Note the puddle of drool! Yucks! Don't they look so alike in this photo?

Busy busy busy

Am going to be so so so busy from next week onwards when my long maternity leave+June holiday ends. Going to have no time to blog, no time to scrap, hopefully not no time for baby. =(

I hope I can cope! God, give me wisdom and discipline and strength.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

I was skinny

Looking thru my old photos.. Man.. I am so fat now. =( Argh!! I must try hard hard to return to former (relative) skinniness.

Can you even recognize me in some of them??

Friday, June 13, 2008

Scrapbook Pages #5, 6, 7 (Miracle, Fatherhood, Gramps)

Scrapping till no time to put up. So here's 3 pages plus cover embellishment at one shot!

Page 5: Miracle
I made a conscious effort to focus on words for this page. So the background paper and most of the decor and embellishments are word related. I love the word "miracle" font, its from Heidi Swapp at Spotlight. I heart all her rub-ons!

Work in progress shot. The black cardstock letters from Heidi Grace at Spotlight are very pretty. There is a faint cross hatch pattern that is very understated. Unfortunately they are poorly die cut and its very frustrating to have to very carefully cut and pull them out. Which explains the ragged edges of the letters "o" and "p". I even had to stick a heart sticker on the "o" to disguise the raggedy-ness. Sigh. The fabric tag for "homemade" was bought from Spotlight as well - their fabric tags were going at $2 per pack, buy lor!! =)

This is also my favourite shot of Sophie so far. Doesn't she look so happy and cheerful here?

Complete work. As usual after taking the final shot I decided to kaypoh and added on two small charms. Teehee. But as usual, too lazy to retake the shot..

Ingredients:
1 8"x8" pink paper with words in background
1 x 4R shot of Sophie (uncropped)

1 x rub-on from Heidi Swapp at Spotlight (Miracle)

1 x cardstock alphas from Heidi Grace at Spotlight

1 x fabric tag from Spotlight

2 x charms from Queen & Co at Made With Love
5 x stickers from 7Gypsies 97% Baby @ MWL
Lots of tape



Page 6: Fatherhood
Decided to give G an early Father's Day surprise. Of course, it mean I have to do it while both he and Sophie are asleep.. in the wee hours of the morning.. zzzzzzzz.

This is the first page in which I did not use the ready made 8 x 8 pages that came with the scrapbook kit. As they were all pink, its kind of hard to find anything that can match a "Fatherhood" theme. So I cut down a 12 x 12 page to size. I realised it is quite hard to find 8 x 8 pages in Singapore. Sigh.


I am quite proud of the framed picture of G and S! The frame is raised above the picture and ribbons and word stickers are used to embellish it. Although it look very plain it took me a very long time to figure out how to get it done! The "changing the diaper" sticker is stuck on the frame, not the picture, so its elevated above the pic too. Heh.

Because most of my stuff is pink and girly. I have very little suitable embellishments for this page! So thats why the big blank space in the middle. I have seen some SB styles that are like this too. Personally i think its not too bad either.

Completed shot. 16.03.08 is the date the picture is taken when S is 10 days old. The text on the small tag reads:
" a few precious moments in a day.. cuddling our little Sophie is his favourite way of stress relief!"
Amazingly I got this tag from a small shop at Coronation Plaza, right next to where I work. There is a shop on the 2nd floor that sells stamps and a small assortment of SB stuff. It has been there for ages but I just never had a chance to go in before. Wahaha.. Next time I can go SB shopping while getting my lunch le.

Ingredients:
1 12"x12" Baby Girl Chitchat paper from Cloud 9 Design @ Creative Hands (cut down to 8 x 8 size)
1/4 size of 4R shot of Sophie and Gary. Our local photo developer can print 4 or 9 pictures into a 4R size. So its good for getting small photos when you don't want your pic to overwhelm the entire LO.

1 x cardstock alphas from Heidi Grace at Spotlight
5 x stickers from 7Gypsies 97% Baby and Fatherhood @ MWL
1 x ribbon from Melissa Frances scrapbook kit
1 x cardstock tag from some shop on Coronation Plaza's 2nd floor
1 x rub-on from Baby Girl by Cloud 9 @ Creative Hands
1 x flower from Kaiser Crafts @ Spotlight
4 x tiny basic metallic brads from Spotlight


Page 7: Grandparents
I've get myself into "political trouble" with this page.. hoho.. as the picture are all of my parents! I don't have any nice picture of G's parents lah. In fact the only photo of G's dad with S is during her 1mth celebration in which she was screaming her head off. Sigh. Not a very good photo to put in lor.. I guess I shall have to hide this page from my PILs till I do up a page with their pics too. Heh.

The idea for the embellishment started with a sheet of Grandparents sticker from BoBunny at MWL. The cardstock stickers are very one-dimensional feel. So I decided to spice it up with ribbons, crystals, a gold heart brad and a mounted cardstock alpha. The sequence in which I should put all these things on took me forever to figure out.

Detailed view of the cardstock sticker with embellishments added on. I added more embellishments on the right side - you will be able to see from the complete picture.

Now I have a problem with layout for this one as I have 3 small pics of the grandparents. Finally I decided to put my mum and dad's individual picture next to the "grandparents" sticker and the picture with all of them together at the bottom. As there is alot of space, I decided to try out journalling on a Hambly transparency overlay on a piece of plain vellum. It was quite intimidating as I actually run out of things to write halfway. It would be so weird to leave it half blank thought so I just continued blabbing till the lines finished. Haha. I must say the effect is quite nice though.

Here is the final layout. I think it looks abit crowded, would have been better if the Hambly was smaller. But overall still OK lah. This has overtaken Flourish as the longest layout it took me to do! Total of 3 hours plus! Whew!

Ingredients:
1 12"x12" Baby Girl Stripes paper from Creating Keepsakes @ Creative Hands (cut down to 8 x 8 size)
2 x 1/4 size of 4R shot of Sophie and my parents, and 1 x 1/9 shot.

1 x cardstock alphas from Heidi Grace at Spotlight
1 x metal flower brad from KCK @ MPH
3 x heart shaped brads from Popular
Round and square shaped crystals from AMK central
5 x Grandparent stickers from BoBunny @ MWL
10 x Fab Fabric stickers from SEI @ Popular
2 x ribbon from my cupboard (red one from cupboard, white lace from Vintage Hip Trims by Making Memories @ MWL)
2 x buttons from Queen @ Co @ MWL
1 x ang pow paper as the background for photo and the gold bird
1 x Hambly transparency overlay @ MWL
1 x vellum from Popular


Finally.. the cover embellishment!
Added a small cover embellishment with the spare paper from cutting down 12 x 12 papers.
Used a "made in heaven" sticker that came together with the kit as well as some flowers. And a very cute "Baby" gumdrop that I got from the shop in Coronation. =)


Ingredients:
1 x circular paper from cutting down Baby Girl Chichat page
1 x Made in Heaven sticker from Melissa Frances scrapbook kit
3 x flowers from Kaiser Craft @ Spotlight
1 x flower button from Spotlight
1 x punched out flower using Craft Punch
1 x epoxy brad from Kaiser Craft @ Creative Hands
1 x Baby gumdrop from Coronation Plaza

Yeah! End of scrapping bonanza. Hehehe. Its going to be a long while before I can put up so many at one shot anymore as the school holidays are ending soon. Sigh..

3 Month Report

Sophie has gone for her 3 month checkup at Aunty Tiffany's clinic on Monday.

She is now 60cm long and weighs 6.0kg! That is just on the 50th percentile for babies of her age. So her growth is quite on track.

She also had to take her 5-in-1 jab that day. Mummy entertained her while Aunty Tiffany prepared the jab. Amazingly, Sophie did not even know when the jab went in! She was most well behaved while we were out - no fever or fussing. Mummy, Daddy and Aunty Tiffany were able to have lunch at Bakerzin in peace. But its a different story when she came home, for the past 2 days since the jab she has been really fussy and grouchy. Thats alright, she will get extra patience and patting for being such a brave girl on Tuesday. =)

Monday, June 09, 2008

Tongueprints / Cacophony of Sound

Sophie has discovered her newest toy - her tongue. Now, she loves to stick her tongue out and is licking everything in sight. Which means everything near her has got to very very clean and we can't leave her unsupervised!

She also leave tongue-prints on Mummy when she has her tummy time with me. When she has tummy time on my chest she tried very hard to hold her head up. However as her head control is not very strong yet she sometimes wobbles her neck and falls to my chest, and when the tongue is out, it means very moist tongue-prints appear on my shirt!

Also, she has a new sound almost daily. No more just wailing and snorting! She probably has over 50 specific sounds by now? The newest one is a low, wet, drawn out "giiiiiiiiiiiiiii". You can almost hear the saliva bubbles burbling as she makes it. Heh. And when we "giiiiiiiiiiiiiii" back at her she breaks out into the cutest toothless grin.

My baby is growing up so fast...

Quickies

- 1st wedding anniversary celebration at Halia restaurant in Botanic Gardens on 2nd Jun.
- Princess is 3 months old as of 6th Jun. Milestone! =)
- Done a 5th scrapbook page. Made conscious effort for entire page t be all words.
- Kwang's wedding on 8th Jun. Inspired me to scrapbook my own wedding shots.
- I need to develop more photos for scrapping. Almost used up those I have le.

Friday, June 06, 2008

Scrapbooking Continues

Did up my third and fourth pages!

Tried out new styles for each, they are vastly different from each other as well as from the first two pages tried.

Page 3: New Born

Work in Progress shot.

This is the "lowest budget" of all my scrapbook pages so far. Yee, do you recognise the card you gave me?? Its now immortalized as part of the scrapbook page! The nursery mobile and scalloped edges are just too cute to pass up. In fact I was inspired this layout by the mobile on the card. The ribbon gives the idea that our new baby is a gift.. like the text says the best things come in the littlest packages. Boy it takes me a long time to figure out how to tie the ribbon just so. Haha. Those who know me know that I have alot of problems tying ribbons!

Completed shot.

Sigh, I don't know why I can't load the picture properly. Before you ask, YES I did try rotating it! Urgh! The birth announcement details are on (place, time, etc) and added some flower stickers for embellishment. After I took the shot, I added three small charms and a jewel brad to spice up the page. But too lazy to re-take the photo - never mind lah hor? It still looks more or less the same as this.

Ingredients:
1 8"x8" pink paper with words "Sweet baby girl" in background

1 x 4R shot of Sophie (uncropped)
1 x dissected card from Li Yee

2 x dissected DSTA Angpows 2008 - provided the shiny gold frame for Sophie's picture as well as the strips for the words

1 x dissected Petit Bateau clothespack - provided the 3 accented letters

1 x ribbon - from my cupboard

3 x stickers from Spotlight
3 x charms and their brads from Made With Love
1 x jewel brad from Spotlight
1 x flower accented brad from Creative Hands
1 x rub-on from Spotlight
The ever omnipresent black permanent OHP pen and lots of tape and glue dots


Page 4: Flourish
I forgot to take the work in progress shot for this one so this is the completed one. Its by far the most complex page of the four I have done! It took me hours and hours.

This layout started with the red felt hearts across the page and Princess blings. The original idea was to show that Sophie is a well-loved Princess! However because the hollow regions of the felt cutouts, I used the flowers to hold them down - one thing led to another and it ended up the whole page being covered with flowers of all sorts. I have really stretched my creative juices to the max to produce all these flowers! Eventually the layout still fit the theme, just that I've modified it to hoping that Sophie will grow and flourish wherever she is planted with the love that she has been given. Like I wrote on the small yellow tag:

"Sophie, you are our most precious princess, the apple and flower of Mummy and Daddy's eyes. As you are brought up in love, we pray that you will grow and flourish where you are planted."

Ingredients (long list!!!!)
1 8"x8" pink paper with flowery background
1 x 4R shot of Sophie (uncropped)
1 x red felt hearts from Creative Hands
1 x "Princess" rhinestones from Spotlight
1 x cardstock quote from Creative Hands
11 x rub-ons (1 from Made With Love, 10 from Creative Hands)
12 x assorted paper/fabric flowers from Made With Love and Spotlight
6 x mini brads to hold flowers in place from Creative Hands
2 x flower stickers from Spotlight
7 x assorted plastic flower buttons from Spotlight
3 x decorative brads (2 from Made With Love, 1 from Creative Hands)
Surprisingly, no black permanent marker
but BOY SUPER A LOT OF glue dots and foam pop dots!

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Attempts at Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking is my new favourite pastime!! And also my new spending vice. Oops..

Here are my first two attempts:

Page 1: Smily Sophie

Work in progress.. Oops the ribbons are "sengeh". And the felt heart is pasted there to cover up the "sengeh" overlap between the photo and the sticker too. =P

I was stuck for quite awhile thinking how to fill up the blank spaces.. finally inspiration strikes

Finished product! I tried out the effect of using mounting tape for the sticker in the lower right hand corner to give a 3D feel. Quite like the effect.

Ingredients:
1 8"x8" pink polka dot paper
1 x 4R shot of Sophie cropped to about 2"x4"
6 x stickers from Spotlight
3 x brads from Made With Love
1 x rub-on from Spotlight
2 x ribbon (one from Made With Love, one from cupboard)
1 x felt heart from somewhere on my table
4 x shiny paper courtesy of American Express flyers (ha ha - I used the non-printed side) - One piece as background for photo, can you find the other 3 pieces?
Black permanent OHP pen and lots of tape and glue dots


Page 2: Bathe Time


Work in progress.. Wanted to add some more design elements on the bath picture itself but in the end cos I really like the clothes stickers that came with the scrapbooking kit, I decided to put them all together on this page.


Finished product! It is very "horizontal" though with almost all the design elements running in horizontal lines.. text as well as the 4 clothes on clothes line below. Hmm.. Shall remember to give more variety in the page next time.

Ingredients:
1 8"x8" pink criss-cross paper
1 x 4R shot of Sophie cropped to about 3.5"x6"
2 x stickers from Made With Love
4 x dress stickers from the scrapbook kit - pasted on cardboard and used mounting tape for 3D effect
3 x alphabet cutouts from Spotlight
1 x string from my cupboard
1x shiny paper courtesy of my inexhaustible American Express flyers
Black permanent OHP pen and lots of tape

How?? Give comments please? 这是我的第一次啊!
Much welcomed any comments and suggestions/ideas!

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Honk!!!

HONK IF YOU LOVE JESUS

Got a letter from Grandma the other day. She writes...

The other day I went up to a local Christian bookstore and saw a "Honk
if you love Jesus" bumper sticker.

I was feeling particularly sassy that day because I had just come from
a thrilling choir performance, followed by a thunderous prayer meeting,
so I bought the sticker and put it on my bumper.

Boy, I'm glad I did! What an uplifting experience that followed!

I was stopped at a red light at a busy intersection, just lost in
thought about the Lord and how good He is... and I didn't notice that the
light had changed.

It is a good thing someone else loves Jesus because if he hadn't
honked, I'd never have noticed!

I found that LOTS of people love Jesus! Why, while I was sitting there,
the guy behind started honking like crazy, and then he leaned out of
his window and screamed, "For the love of GOD! GO! GO! Jesus Christ,
GO!"

What an exuberant cheerleader he was for Jesus! Everyone started
honking!

I just leaned out of my window and started waving and smiling at all
these loving people. I even honked my horn a few times to share in the
love!

There must have been a man from Florida back there because I heard him
yelling something about a "sunny beach"...

I saw another guy waving in a funny way with only his middle finger
stuck up in the air.

Then I asked my teenage grandson in the back seat what that meant, he
said that it was probably a Hawaiian good luck sign or something. Well,
I've never met anyone from Hawaii, so I leaned out the window and gave
him the good luck sign back.

My grandson burst out laughing...why, even he was enjoying this
religious experience!

A couple of the people were so caught up in the joy of the moment that
they got out of their cars and started walking towards me. I bet they
wanted to pray or ask what church I attended, but this is when I noticed
the light had changed.

So, I waved to all my sisters and brothers grinning, and drove on
through the intersection. I noticed I was the only car that got through the
intersection before the light changed again and I felt kind of sad that
I had to leave them after all the love we had shared, so I slowed the
car down, leaned out of the window and gave them all the Hawaiian good
luck sign one last time as I drove away.

Praise the Lord for such wonderful folks!

Grandma

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Small Things with Great Love

Moisture

People often ask me, "What's the difference between couplehood and babyhood?" In a word? Moisture. Everything in my life is now more moist. Between your spittle, your diapers, your spit-up and drool, you got your baby food, your wipes, your formula, your leaky bottles, sweaty baby backs, and numerous other untraceable sources--all creating an ever-present moistness in my life, which heretofore was mainly dry.
-- Paul Reiser

Scrapbooking

I'm starting a scrapbook for Princess Sophie courtesy of a beautiful scrapbook kit given by Angeline. =)

This is going to be fun..

"A new baby is like the beginning of all things-wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities." - Eda J. Le Shan