It's uncanny ...

...but the more scrapbook blogs I read, the more I realise we 'sound' increasingly similiar!

I once used the analogy of hoarding nuts like squirrels just to tie them over the winter ... in the case of scrapbooking enthusiasts its about HOARDING. Yes, HOARDING with a PERIOD at the end.

No winter to tie us over - just perhaps an imaginery 'winter' in our minds ... But usually upon entering a scrapbook craft shop with dizzying, delectable array of fancy papers and embellishments to peruse and choose from, a certain air of euphoria descends on any scrapbook enthusiast - no matter how keenly discipline they are of their budget and needs.

Its like shopping for shoes or handbags. Spoilt by choice, you can't quite decide. And if finances permit, you'd get a pair in each and every shade and colour there is on display!

Then there's the 'magic' hour where scrapbookers settle down to scrap. Its only when the excitment of the day has settled, kids fast asleep, the significant other is either dozing in front of telly or surfing the net; In my case, its when the hurly-burly of my day is done ...where am finally home, fed and squeaky clean after a nice LOOOOoooNNnG shower! That's when the magic of paper creation begins and ends only after one is satisfied with one's work. That can sometimes mean going well into the wee hours of the morning ... depending on how absorbing and motivating the scrapbook project is.

In a way, scrapbookers are a little bit of night owls too - pottering contentedly into the quiet of the night while the rest of the world slumbers ...

Its done ...

This mini-album would go Jared's grands.

The creative process ...

Step 1: Identifying the Subject

For most, esp. those who have families and children of their own, this step is the simplest. Its only natural to want to capture those precious moments - and most families have more than plentiful stash of their happiest and proudest moments of family gatherings and children's milestones and antics. Scrapping them as subject matter is but a way to enhance those precious captured moments.

Admittedly, i sometimes have trouble identifying subject matter. So many to choose from! Sometimes photos are not even existing yet!

I guess, brooding largely on such a wide array of subjects can sometimes make one mind bogglingly indecisive!

Step 2 : Selection of Photos

For one with a shaky hand, selecting photos can be a relatively easy process. Photos elimated would be ones that are either blurred or 'cut off' - which can be more than a few!

Step 3: Conceptualizing

Which involves a variety of designing issues (usually simultaenously) :
a) to crop or not to crop? That be the question ...
b) photo size - large, medium, small??
c) Layout of photo(s), Number of photos per page
d) Page size - 12 x 12? 8 x 8? 6 x 6?
e) Schematic colour scheme - paper to complement photo(s)
f) Design of page, theme, layout, choice of embellishments
g) To journal? What to journal? Layout of journal?

Step 4: Actualization

Usually involves long, happy, absorbing moments of more musing,cutting, arranging and pasting. Time taken range from a few minutes to a few weeks ... depending on how inspired one is or how much free time one has to scrap in a day.

A Theory of Colours ...

I have a theory about the shades of colours. Why in the East, strikingly bold colours seems to be more popular than the soft, soothing pastel hues in the West...

Simplistic as it may sound it all boils down to the heat and the amount of sunshine we get in my part of the world. Now how does that tie in with colours - you may wonder ...

My theory is based on these observations :-


The heat affects the plants and for some reason the hotter the weather the more vibrant the colours. The vibrant, vivid green of my country's rain forests, so densed sometimes all you see is that deep shade of green;

The flowers that bloom in this part of the world are by and large, strikingly bright - shocking pink, bright reds, yellows, whites, lflaming orange ... possibly to contrast and stand out against the rich deep green foliage (or how else will they be pollinated by insects?)


Since we're by and large a product of our environment, people in the warm sunny East tend to gravitate towards brighter, attractive colours. Seen in their cultural and choice of colours in dressing (very bright, very colourful), design, building paints and even paper (I used to have students once upon a time ago handing in their assignment in neon coloured paper - so blindingly bright I had trouble reading their printed scripts!)


Because of the amount of sunshine and heat that we get in the Far East, our skin tends to be browner which (fortunately) carries off bright colours well. Bright red for example attractively complements those with dark skin. On the other hand, pastel green or even lime green on dark skin is downright unflattering. Only few (and the colour blind) can carry it off ...

Which leads to the reason why pastel colours which gives a touch of spring in its hues are hard to find in my part of the world The colourist are simply either:-
a) ignorant of such hues or uncertain how such variety of intricate hues and complements would be received by the local market
b) colour prints loud by popular demand.




Unlike the West where choices of colours are affected by the changing seasons, in the Far East where its hot and humid (most of the time), bright colours shade our lives 365 days a year. And hence, cultural preference for giddyingly loud bright colours.

Woo hoo!

You know how they (the spiritual gurus of our time) would preach about being what you think, and attracting the things you want. being creator of one's happiness ... and therefore one has to be careful with one's thoughts ..?

Anyhows. Today I got not one but FOUR large envelopes of delectable papers, embellishments and circle cutter I've been eyeing for a while now (and the only thing that was stopping me from buying online was the exhorbitant shipping fees)!


(pink circle cutter on far right)

Is that cool or what?!? The papers are lovely esp. the scallopped edged ones. Finally, I get a feel of what the REAL thing is like (nothing beats the experience of holding it in one's hands!!) after all these time of admiring them in those scrapbooking galleries of beautiful works! Have often wondered how such effects were achieved ... was it a D-I-Y job - hence a need for very specialised tools or do papers actually come in those scooped and wavy edges?


(scalloped paper in pink and green on far right)

Thanks Kheng! You really made my day - and MORE! Woo hoo ... *do a little jig in glee*

An Ode to Hoarding ...

Okay, so am not exactly a poet. Nor do i in depth understanding of rhythms, iambic meter -- whatever that all means (!?!) Yes, literature was one of the subjects I HAD to take for A levels (not much choice in the once upon a time college episode) - it's rather obvious, I wasn't really paying attention in class.

But here's to Hoarding!

We all hoard in our own individual ways. Squirrelling away what is deemed 'precious', fantasizing about the ever growing stash, so much that one could literally swim in it (ok, ok, so am going to the extremes ...) That's why we have various degrees of 'collections'.

Admittedly, some of the various bits and bobs that we collect are simply dearer than other. From stamps, art, coins, shoes, bags, jewellery, bottle caps to trainspotting ... whatever we fancy with relish and can't quite get enough of, compells us to hoard. Just incase ... we 'run-out' or manufacturers 'stop-production', or the 'i -may-just-need-it-someday, or hoard in hope of making 'a-profit' when the value increases ...

Its only part of being alive. Animals do it. Governments do it. So, why not we? Yet, it could also pose as a potential psychological and physical problem when hoarding becomes compulsive (esp. if one has to swim through hoard just to get to front door ...).

But am talking about hoarding with a balance ;) - Where we're permitted to have our little stash of delight where we can turn to to amuse ourselves.

So here's to hoarding. In our case its delectable paper, tools and embellishments. Hear! Hear! Yum-yum!

Abit of a bore ...

Blame it on the heat (we always have to blame it on something other than ourselves!), but work on that mini scrapbook album is coming along veeeerrrrrryyyyy, slowly ... am begining to wonder at the rate am going i'd probably have nothing scrap-related to post on this blog!!

So, speaking about heat ... its been so swelteringly warm lately. The humidity doesn't help either. One sweat buckets (ok, so not very pleasant to imagine) even after a nice cool shower ... then again, at the rate the sun's scorching this tiny part of my world, even the water (that's suppose to be cool) is warm! :P

So, not much respite unless one hides in airconditioned room 24/7. Which is impossible because one needs to commute. Get out of house, get into car, get out of car, get into office, get out of office, grab lunch, get back to office ... all that spaces in between the 'gettings' is sheer exposure to the unbearable heat. I got my car tinted to shave off heat and UV rays and still its like a furnace everytime i get into it ... those leather seats don't help either. (Why do they use leather on car-seats in the tropics?!!) If you want to know about bum burns, am a good point of reference ... I should do something about those seats ...

As you can tell, indoor carparks aren't exactly plently in my part of the world. We have space, you see ... loads of it, so multistorey carparks with that shaded relief is only confined to the business district and major shopping malls (which we have only about 2, as i write).

The haze is back too, by the looks of the skies. Its no wonder my sinus is acting up ... (the inconveniences of a sensitive nose :P). I just hope its not here to stay ... we had haze so dire once even rooms indoors looked smokey and you couldn't see beyond 100m.

And how does the heat and haze affect my scrap? In every way!! It just dries up all that creative juices and energy ... leaving one rather lethargic and flat ... abit of a bore, really ... :P

Honestly, i shouldn't be complaining with the sort of catastrophes China and Myanmar are dealing with. I should be glad for the scorching heat that makes all things grow (and wilt) and all is well ... even if there's a tiny storm in the political teacup as i write ...

No catastrophe there, just a little trifle.

Bits of paper ...

Glued together and you have this ...literally in minutes!

Also of late, i've been compiling a mini-album on this year's Chinese New Year photos with family. Used the card I made in previous post as cover to mini-album - which explains the neglect in blog postings ...

Potter till the wee hours of the morning and by then, have difficulty keeping eyes open ... what more write blog entry!

Here's some snippets of how the album looks like. Its still a work in progress. There's still the journalling aspect to be completed. Not quite decided on how i want to present that part of the album just yet ...



Photo A: Cover page, with ribbons to hold pages together.



Photo B: Sample pages - J & Aunt T



Photo C : More sample pages - J Clowning around



Photo D: Formal Family Shot

When inspiration strikes ...

... cards happen!

Was watching a scrapbook DVD I got from the local bookshop the other day and this lady (Australian, by the sounds of her accent) demonstrated a few rather nifty and simple DIY scrapbook embellishments. The first being a 'flower' made out of ribbons.

Since i have quite a hefty (and very messy) stash (as pictured in earlier post & still not looking any neater!), I thought I'd try out her simple but attractive ideas, that needed very basic sewing.

Viola! My 'Just for you ...' card - or mini book cover, I haven't quite decided just yet.



Pink button in the middle was sewn to accent the flower Whilst acrylic butterflies were glued on to the background. The flower 'stem' is made out of green ric-rac - threaded in and out paper via holes made from paper puncher. Handmade green leaf and squiggled in a few leafy 'veins'. The tag is DIY - drawn and cut out from free templates got off the british 'Paper Craft Inspiration' magazine.




Mom's card looking a little more complete - thanks to suggestions. Didn't have chipboard alphabets nor tag small enough to fit in bottom of card - so made do with alternatives . Used round fancy paper punchers as mounts for 'rubbed on' font stickers. Glued on butterfly buttons on top of page.

Take a look at these webpages..

http://amillionlittlethings.com/store06/index.php?cPath=24

http://www.a-natural-craft.com/showproduct.asp?id=11

... don't you think the pattern papers are somewhat similar?

The first page (if you've started with a-million-little-things is an online scrapbook supplies - located somewhere in the heart of the states (that's what i imagine when an organization claims they are from UTAH). Papers are considered 'branded' papers - rather popular too, from what I gather from the scrapbook magazines.

The latter is a manufacturer/supplier of some scrapbook items based in Hong Kong (i bet their factory is in China ... to exploit the advantage of cheap labour, raw materials etc.) No branding. Just pretty papers to be cut to size. Its all about sales for these people and pricing is fairly competitive ... (certain restrictions applying though ...)

If you're thinking along the same savvy lines as this scrapbook (hoarder) i.e. 'if Ican get a bargain elsewhere - inclusive of shipping costs ... Why not?!?', you'll understand why (esp. when scrapbook shops here are non-existent) i've been trawling the net for patterned paper manufacturers ...

Unfortunately this seemingly 'bargain' comes with specific conditions. That you have to buy in BULK! A minimum order of a certain amount - an actual example would be their glue squares. I enquired about ONE (box, possible 100 glue squares - so am guessing ...), they thought I was asking about a carton(1 carton=30 boxes)! As for ribbons ... they're asking how many yards I want and how many types of ribbon per package!

I don't suppose i could just say I want a couple of yards of type X, Y, Z ... they probably tell me to stop wasting their time and disappear!

I guess, as lucky as I initially thought I was in being able to track down ONE manufacturers of paper crafts in China, their mode of sale is simply not suitable for personal 'hoarding' exercise unless:-

a)I own a large warehouse as oppose to that tiny but messy paper infested corner in my room!
b) Want to be stuck with X type of patterned paper and ribbons for life!! Possibly even have leftovers for my (non-existent) children and grandchildren ... who may not even like scrapbooking! :P

God forbid! Scrapbooking is about wondrous variety. Not boring bulk!

Now, it would be a different matter all together if I were going into retail and there's a thriving local scrapbook demand (other than mea nd possibly a handful others!) in my part of the world ...

Not exactly a scrap entry ...

In addition to scrapbooking, i've also in the last year or so, discovered the joys of sketching (when someone so kindly gave me a proper drawing block when he saw me doodling on recycled paper while waiting ...)

Forced to take art tuition while i was in school, I never considered myself one that could 'draw' nor 'colour' - noting how much extra help i needed when for most drawing and colouring simple comes naturally.

So far my experiments in drawing is limited to simple pencil sketches and shading for effects. Finally got myself a 18 colour set of colour pencils (never quite like oil pastels that we used in school - too messy!).

Spent the Labour day putting them to good use. :) Now my doodles come in colours!

Musing now about incorporating those sketching and colouring bits into scrapbooking ...

Mom's card ...

I've been working on this particular card for my Mom. The theme of card again focuses on flowers but this time paper, die-cut ones in a complementary rage of light blues, yellows and pinks, accented with coloured brads, yellow paper swirls and sequins (used previously in Mother's day cards).

Its 95% completed ... I say that because i can't help but think that something's missing ... Should i add a ribbon somewhere or a border of sorts? I don't trust myself to doodle in designs - whether it be simple lines and dots or swirls. I tend to get nervous (just the thought of having only ONE shot at it or ruin entire efforts) makes my handwriting or doodling go awry ...

I have shaky hands. That's why my photos are not exactly the best of quality. To make it worst, i tend to take pictures of work in the middle of the night ... that's when most of my scrapping is done and digital cameras aren't exactly the greatest shots in the night. The flash does help, but my hands doesn't ... :p

Made a mental note, my future camera must come with one of those anti-shake feature ...or whatever you call 'em. Hopefully that would compensate for all the blurred, shaky pictures i've been taking ...

In the mean time, I will make do with what i have and try to take my pictures during the day when the light is good and my shaky hands don't affect the quality of pictures so much ...