Another Heritage Layout

Dad received some profits from his factory one year, and decided to take all the employees on a tour to Thailand. He visited one of the temples and took a few pictures. He closed down the factory in a few years because he felt he was too old to run it and he just wanted to spend more time with family..... He is the best employer I've known! :)

I couldn't recognize the site of these photos so I had to post it on FB and ask my friends to help. My friend Linda has helped me to identify it as Wat Arun.

This layout was done for a heritage challenge. The pics were taken in the 60s. I hand cut the elephant from the pp.. despite the fact that I have a few die cut machines.. the irony of it - LOL!

Supplies List

Basic Grey Blush - Double Dark
Basic Grey Boxer - Vintage Tee, Corduroy, Wide Tie, Wing Tip
We R Memories snaps
Jolee's stickers
American Craft Thickers

Baby Baby Baby

Congratulations to a lovely couple - they are expecting a baby girl! So, our friends threw a baby shower for them, and asked me for help to make a guest book since I have , oh, you know, just surplus of papers! And I decided to make them a diaper cake because every baby needs a few diapers, a few washcloths, burp cloths, blankets and onesies...

Father's Day Album

I am so glad I'm able to finish my dear husband's Father's Day album. He is an awesome dad and an equally awesome photographer, so it is only fitting that I combined those two themes together and made him a family photo album. This time the album features not just the most photographed subjects on earth (our kids), but also the photographer himself!

I really love doing acrylic albums. My preference is to not cover the album up with paper, but rather use rub-ons or stamping (using Staz On ink) to keep the focus on the photos and also allow embellishments on the next pages to show through. As the albums are generally 8x8 or smaller, photos will need to be cropped in most cases and the 'blank' areas are then open for embellishing. It is really fun when you finish the album, and each page adds a little to the overall album design, and you can see it all through the cover!

There are a few tricks to not let adhesive show. One technique is to put two photos that are the same size on the front and back pages in the same location. That way, the adhesive is 'hidden' behind the pictures. Another method is to paste a patterned paper or cardstock to the back of a photo and let that show through the backside of the page. The patterned paper can be part of the background on the backside design. In this album, I used paper on the film strip of 3 photos and also on the long, slim photo. You can see how the paper becomes a part of the design on the backside. Since these papers do show through, I would use either a vellum adhesive or Zip-dry glue. This way the adhesive will not be as visible.

Most clear albums have about 5 acrylic sheets in total (10 pages). I like to keep the first page embellished, yet not covered up so the whole album can show through. I then embellish different quadrants in each of the following pages. This way, there won't be too much overlapping.

Half of the album focuses on family photos that were taken by the photographer. The other half focuses on the photographer himself:

Supply List:
Clear Scraps Camera Clear Album
Little Yellow Bicycle Lucky Me paper and rub-ons
Heidi Grace Forever Love Rub-ons
Technique Tuesday Ali Edwards Life in Pictures Stamp
Bo Bunny Journaling and K&Co Blue Awning Rub-ons
Making Memories ribbons and button
Staz On ink pad

Mother's Day Report

I received these beautiful gifts form my kids for mother's day. The cards are hand made by my son, my daughter, and the middle one is from my husband, who said my hand-made cards have coerced him into making a card as well - LOL! No good deeds go unpunished!!!

So, from a guy's perspective .. gifts for moms are for moms to do .... more stuff, right? He did emphasize it is because I LOVE to do those stuff.. so here it is:


So here is my report....

I discovered the no-knead bread from Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François:
http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

These are wonderful recipe for homemade artisan breads. The breads are easy to make and not time-consuming at all. We will never have to buy artisan breads again!

Happy Mother's Day!

To all of you moms, ALL of you (including those who are, who will be, who have been, who are like one to another person, and etc and etc .....)

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Fabric Flower (hairpin or brooch)

Welcome to the Sassy Blinging Babe's BlogHop! You must have just visited Kelly's Paper Dreams Blog, isn't it fun? Now on this blog, I'd like to share a fabric flower that I made as a Mother's Day project.

There are many uses for making fabric flowers. Estelle once told me that she used the Sizzix to make fabric flowers for brooches. Since I have some Sizzix flower die as well, I decided to give it a try.



I started out with 4 quilt squares I got from the local fabric store. I then used the Sizzix Flower die and the Cuttlebug to cut out flower pieces. For this thick die, I used a stack of two Plate B and an envelope to cut the fabric. The addition of the envelope underneath the smooth side of the die gave me the right thickness such that the cuts are clean. You can probably skip the envelope if your fabric is thick enough.



I stacked about 5 to 6 flowers together. Then I cut a thin strip of fabric to make the center of the flower. I found this tutorial which is very easy to follow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-upodt7jic

Since the flower center is very small, I did not fold the strip 3 times, instead, I just folded it once, and kept twisting it while going around. The result is a small flower center:



After this is done, I inserted a small pearl brad at the center and adhere the center to the stack of flower petals I made earlier. Then I glued the flower to a small piece of felt so that it'll go on a hairpin or a brooch easily.

Thanks for looking.. if you leave a comment, you have a chance to win! I will pick one random commenter and one random Sassy Blinging Babe commenter to receive a small RAK. Check back on Apr 24th to see if you have won (and let me know how to contact you)!

Now it's time to check out the next hop stop: Cyndi's Place! Have fun!

Heritage Page

I haven't done a heritage page for a long time ... fortunately, I stumbled upon a challenge that got me going again. Of course, I couldn't have done this without the help of my friends, Rhonda and Cyndi, who 'enabled' me to get a set of Asian themed scrapbook kit from Big Lots. So I decided to scrap this picture of my parents that I absolutely LOVE!

I started with 2 pieces of patterned papers that I really love, and then added the embellishments one by one. After I was done, I thought it still lacked something.. I wanted to add something a bit more personal (in addition to the journaling) ... so I stamped the bird and the butterfly and hand-cut them as custom embellishments. I also found an Asian themed wooden stamp that I had for a long time about summer, and I made an image from that as well. Now it feels more complete:



Supplies list:
DCWV cardstock
Colorbok Scrapbook Kit
Making Memories Journaling Stamp, Basic Grey Granola Stamp
Prima and K&Co Flowers
Making Memories vintage pins, ribbon charms, antique brads
Prima and K&Co Pearls and flower centers
Maya Road Coins, OTC metal flowers
Prima ribbon

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Happy ValeNewYear!

Yes, it's been more than a month... but this year's Valentine's Day was very special. Or this year's Chinese New Year was very special. That's because they both fall on the SAME day! So, which holiday you choose to celebrate tells me how much you value your lover over your family, or vice versa!

Or maybe you can do both!?! So I made traditional Chinese New Year good eats, and some Valentine's Day cupcakes.... for my loved ones:

Turnip Cakes

For my loved ones...



Fried rice cake, sesame ball,
homemade sesame dessert dumpling
fried wonton skin

Big Valentine

My daughter's school teacher planned a surprise Valentine's Day Party for the kids and requested that parents bring in a big Valentine for the kids... Being a scrappy mom, of course I HAD to make my own! :) I saw a beautiful decorative Valentine's quilt at a store and it gave me the idea for this big card. It also represents the many ways we love her. And we certainly love her in more ways than one!

Her teacher has requested for a minimal amount of sweets and gifts, so I only attached four hairclips, a cute little jelly candy and a heart-shaped template (since she is a young scrapper too). I also made a card for her using the Cuttlebug, knowing that she loves the embossed butterfly. I knew there was a reason why I bought a stack of Brenda Walton's Sweet Talk paper pad. Now I know! :)

Supplies list:

K and Company Brenda Walton's Sweet Talk

Queen and Company Heart shaped felt

Making Memories Embellishment Jar (Noteworthy - Ava)

Making Memories Vintage Finds Large Kit (baby collection)

Assorted flowers from Prima and Ava

K and Company Sweet Talk Fabric Brad

Cuttlebug Cut and Emboss Butterfly

Cuttlebug Bloom Dots A2 Embossing Folder

My renovated scrap corner (+ kids reading room)

We finally moved the queen size bed from our 'multi-purpose room' (which serves as a guestroom, my craft room, the kids reading room, summer changing room for swimming, diaper changing room for our guets). We got an Expedit shelf (+table) from IKEA and a couple of 'Billies' and turned the room into our official family craft room + kids' reading room.

Rub-ons, stickers and clear stamps are stored in folders. I bought some of the storage sheets from Ebay where you can store 4-6 stamps on a page. For the Studio G dollar stamp sets, I used the baseball card holders. The file folders are those made to house 8.5 x 11 sheets. In one drawer, I stored all my Making Memories paints, the other - all my bling. I have to store my inks in another drawer and the acrylic blocks and additional wood stamps in the other. Most of my embellishments are categorized and placed in boxes. Ribbons are in glass or plastic jars, a few are in storage boxes as well.

We left the Crop in Style cubs and the overhead shelf (also from IKEA) at their original spot, added a small corner table and a couple of beanbags as the reading corner. We moved the original bookshelves to the other side of the room and placed the new shelves next to them. We then moved all the kids' books and crafts into these shelves. Because the Expedit shelf won't house the vertical Cropper Hopper 12x12 paper holders, I have to use the bottom bookshelves for my 12x12 papers.

The walls are not done yet.... I think we'll post some of the kids' drawings on the wall.. and maybe add a few more wall decors...

What did we do during Christmas?

We kickstart the holidays with baking brownies. We made enough cookies and brownies for all the teachers and packaged them nicely in Martha Stewart boxes that were on sale.

After that, it was all a blur. What did we do during the holidays? Let's see, we cooked, ate, went up North to enjoy the snow twice, took the Polar Express, saw a couple of movies, went to a few parties and we made these ....

Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake

I made this cheesecake for our Thanksgiving party... I know.. it's been MONTHS... I finally got a chance to write down the recipe, and maybe post some Christmas baking pics sometime soon! :)

I found two recipes originally. One for a chocolate pumpkin cheesecake and the other one for a mocha chocolate pumpkin cheesecake. Since we have many young guests, I cut down on the coffee and also simplified the procedures a little.

Ingredients

3 tablespoon butter

1 1/2 cups finely crushed chocolate graham crackeres

3 - 8 oz packages of Neufchatel or cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar; 1/4 cup light brown sugar

5 large eggs

2 cups cooked pumpkin puree or 1 can (16 oz) solid pack pumpkin

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup semi sweet chocolate morsels

4 tablespoons hot strong coffee

Preparation

Cheesecake crust

1. Heat oven to 350F. Melt 3 tbs of butter; combine with crushed graham crackers and strong coffee. Press into bottom and partially up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Sprinkle half cup of chocolate morsels on pie crust.

Filling

2. Use an electric beater at medium speed, cream Neufchatel or cream cheese for 3 - 4 minutes. Beat in sugar gradually, continuing for 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in pumpkin and vanilla.

3. Warm rest of the chocolate morsels in warm water bath until melted. Spoon in 1/2 cup of the pumpkin mixture and mix well.

4. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the crust. Spoon in chocolate pumpkin mixture over top and swirl to make pattern. Save some mixture for mending cracks later on.

5. Bake for 60 - 65 minutes or until the rim is set and the center is slightly unset (after cooling down the center will firm up). Remove from oven and cool in pan. Remove the ring from the springform pan before the cake cools down).

6. Use the chocolate pumpkin mixture to mend any surface cracks if necessary.

Variations

Our family loves mango. So I've substituted pumpkin puree with mango puree. I will experiment with other fruit to see which ones taste good. The mango cheesecake was a big hit too: