Keeping Zen

Today I write this post because something had happened recently. To the point where I am stepping up to voice my thoughts because I know I have some great scrappy pals who were very supportive and a oblivious person who is copying my designs and thinks there is nothing wrong.

No, I am not angry at you for copying my designs only because I choose to be zen about the whole matter.

In fact, I know who you are, your name and your social networks. The internet is a big world but yes I know who you are. It is not hard to search for you since you keep appearing in my social network circle.

You know why I started my passion in scrapbooking? If it were to make money, then I guess I wont be here up till today. But no. I started off purely with the love to create something special, like a fashion designer designing clothes or an architect designing a building. I stay true to my designs because they are my creations. Like a baby to a mom, my creations are my babies. To see my baby being stolen away and others claiming her as their babies is not what I can tolerate.

Throughout this whole event, there were many times I felt injustice to see my project being credited under someone else. There is zero tolerance to infringement of designs to any designer.

You need to realize that making money out of scrapbooking is viable but you will need to have your own style and own means to design. How can you lead a life of copying and shortchange the designers of their credit? It doesnt cost you to credit the designers but your choice of copying costs you your character and morals.

I will choose to lead a life of zen. While I can battle with you head on and exposing your details, I shall not do so. This is against my morals as a scrapbook designer and I shall not stoop to this kind of levels. Therefore this post is dedicated to you in hope you can change for the better as the scrapbooking world needs purer and better people to make it a better community.

So I shall leave this episode to a closure. I have said my peace, and hope you realise the basic ethics on scrapbooking. Me on the other hand will continue to scrapbook and create better designs, in hope to continue inspiring the community. As I venture on, I still promise to keep the basic ethics and morals involved in scrapbooking. This is what each of us can do, to keep the scrapbooking world more vibrant.

Before I end it all, I wish to thank all the people who have encouraged me during this period of time. You know who you are. I am grateful that the scrapbooking world has peeps like you around to uphold the basic ethics and protect the designers.

Last Day of Freedom

and well, tomorrow's going to be a work day for me. I'm starting work officially. Feeling's quite mixed. I remembered I did quit my regional job so I can settle down with my dd. But as time went on, settling down seems too far away. I'm not sure if this job will suit me. But with a hopeful heart, I'm going to work tomorrow.

I remembered how I always missed my dd when he travels. LOL, he travelling and me travelling. I wont be surprised one day to meet him in one of the countries...

Inspired by Moments Recorded which is hosted by Jie Ying, here's my layout of the memories of those days. Really quite some time back. Edited the photo since it was used before.

Had to mute out his photo and the sentiments... :) My dd "blog-shy" lol~

This challenge was really fun because there are 100 rules.. LOL ok kidding~ But because there were so many guidelines, it's what I really call a challenge~ and it's fun!

So there! Need to get some beauty sleep and be fresh for work tomorrow~!

AR Display Re-newal + New Classes

Ho Ho Ho~ Ok, it's not Xmas i know. But I'm very excited to see a brand new display up at The Art Republic~ Remember the old one? I'm feeling so sad to tear it down, this was what it was when I first knew AR. Oh well, of course, the old goes and new comes, and a new display for a prosperous 2012~

Kinda miss it! So this is the black and white before... Sophia and I each went back to do some LOs for the wall, and here's my pieces...

Kinda rusty with LOs, lol~ But Pion Design Papers are quite good to use - they're all so pretty! And so with the LOs done up, Sophia and I began tearing down the wall... :p

And of course, our dear mother is taking my ugly photos. :) Very un-glam~

While fitting in the pieces, I'm in charge of the placement whilst Sophia and Jean tell me what to change. Haha. It was really fun being confused with the lefts and rights and moving up and down!

The final was really amazing. Jean and Sophia really has a way with the placements - it looks fabulous~

Pardon me for the lousy photos, because they were taken by my iphone, and the quality isn't that good.  If you happen to be around, why not pop over to AR and have a look at the new display? Hope it'll give you a refreshing feeling! And we will still be doing some re-vamp here and there, so you might be catching something new~

And of course, the next 2 projects up already.

Express Class: Love Token

Make your love token from scratch~

Songbird

An add-on to Sophia's Roche Box - Great for guest books or photo albums!

So that's one more reason for you to hop down to AR now. :) See you there!

Smiles

This time round, I wanted to showcase one of my favorite Magnolia stamps. It might not be a main focus stamp, but it does have a lot of meaning attached to the stamp. :) On top of that, I've also got a new stamp which I think will be present on all my cards from now on.

Dd was in Japan last week, and while I was missing him quite badly here in Singapore, he did got me some presents... I must be one lucky girl because he supports me in my scrapbooking craze quite a bit. (of course if he could help me financially that would be even better... Hehe... ) Yes, and he did remember I was looking for a stamp with my name. It's really hard to find one spelling STACY instead of STACEY. I've been hunting in Singapore, but over the years, my hope just went down. And he found it! 

It's difficult to be showcasing a lovey-dovey kind of Valentine's Day card for me. I guess it has to be something to do with dd and my personalities. We both detest romance quite a bit. Haha, so if you are one looking for romance, never date an engineer. Oh well, this card will work well for my valentine I suppose. :)

Products:

Maya Road Trinklet Pins, flowers own collection

Punches:

Fence - Martha Stewart

Stamp:

Magnolia Stamps

Copic:

R24 Prawn, R35 Coral, G82 Spring Dim Green, G99 Olive

Entering this card for the following challenges~

Simply Magnolia - Red and/or Pink + White Challenge

LCOM - Card Sketch #08

A little inspired for a box...

Yesterday, a guy came walking into he Art Republic asking for ideas to decorate a box. He wanted to give it to his gf and propose to her. Wow! So sweet!

I came back home feeling really inspired. So I wanted a garden, shabby, love and flowery feel kind of box. Not just any box I find, so I decided to make one. Thought that would be a great idea to house the ring that was given to me by my dd. Haha did you for a minute think I was going to propose to my bf? Nope! :)

So after all the hard work of pasting the pieces together, and getting the cover to fit the base, I finally got it somehow. Trust me, it took 6 hours for the box!

Love Box

Box Base Details

Opened Box

Flower Bed with Ring

Base of Cover

Do you think that it would be appropriate for housing my wedding rings in future instead of the boring ring cushion? I love this project a lot. Somehow it has been some time since I last touched hands on a shabby look. Hope it still fits the bill. But having said  that, I must go get more flowers since I'm running out of stock after this box...

For the base of this box, I think i would include a heart charm coupled with our names. However, since that guy is so camera shy, I decided to take a photo before I add our names and photo to the base of the box.

Sweet magnolia holding the heart just tells me how much i sit around recently and thinking of him. He's now in Japan and every day is like forever for me. erks. How can that happen when we've been together for practically forever?

Products:

Kaisercraft - Sweet Nothings "Devoted"

Prima flowers, paper flowers, pearls, feather, lace - stash collection

Die-cuts/Punches:

Fiskars Fence Border Punch

Sizzix Heart Diecut

Stamps:

Magolia - "With heart"

Copic:

Entering this card for the following challenges~

Simply Magnolia - Hearts and Love Challenge

Magnolia-licious Highlites - February DT Challenge - Vintage and Shabby Chic

Just Magnolia - Pink and Pearls and Lace

Cute Card Thursday - Challenge 203 Pink Valentine

Do spend some time hopping over to the challenges, I'm very sure you will be bought over with the talent of the DTs. Sure, I was dripping saliva over the beauty of their projects, and you know now what got me started. I play along challenges quite often, and they bring me to another level of scrapbooking. I'm very thankful for the challenge sites, because they bring us scrappers all together. Feeling really good to see each others' projects and sharing ideas. :) 

Ending blog post with lots of love,

Thinking of You...

A short break makes me all refreshed again.

Today I came back with more cards. DD has gone to Japan for work, leaving me ample time and space to craft and create. I do think of him and it's influencing my cards, but it's okay. It matches my new Magnolia stamps. So lovely and dreamy...

I must admit, each time I use up those scraps, I'm more than excited. Have to gain some more space for more new stamps and die-cuts. :)

PP / Embellishments: 

Mostly scraps

Stamps:

Magnolia

Punches / Die-cuts:

Martha Stewart Fence Punch

Carl Carlo Rabbit Punch

Lifestyle Nesting Lace Rectangles DC

Copic Markers:

 

Entering this card for the following challenge~

Magnoli-licious Highlites: Feb DT Challenge - Vintage & Shabby Chic

Just Magnolia: Challenge #142 - Anything Goes + V'day Option

Somehow today passed by too quickly. How was your day? For most, it is a working day. Hope it had been one with lots of smiles. 

Double Coptic Binding Notebooks

Today I woke up early and had breakfast with my family. Kind of tiring, considering that I volunteered to go to the temple with them and having to wait for them for an hour. But I guess it was sort of a family event... Picked up a brochure at the temple indicating the fortune process of the 12 symbolic animals in the year of 2012. Quite interesting to know that my fortune is still as bad. haha, guess this year's going to be another hard year for me. Will need to make some more trips for prayers this year.

Since the double coptic book binding technique class earlier this week, I've started to make another 2 books. Just thought I would make some extra books for decorating later on. 

Here's the first one:

Marcelle, does this pattern paper look familiar? It belonged to the same set that you used for your notebook. And I decided to make use of the scraps to complete this notebook. Barely enough! Hehe... Anyways I used leather thread on this notebook. Slightly thicker, and the stitches are more obvious.

Cover: Pion Design Patterned Paper

I might have spent a little more effort on the second one. Here's the completed book:

Included dividers within the pages and stamped randomly with my newly purchase stamp. Rounded the corners on this book, on a very random feel. haha...

Cover/Dividers: Basic Grey Patterned Paper

Stamp: Hero Arts "Newspaper Eiffel Tower"

Can't wait to sit down and decorate these books. It's really relaxing to stitch these books. I've spent an hour on both books. A quality hour indeed. I think I will be making more of these with different stitches soon.

It's nearly lunch hour now, so I've got to move myself outside to help my mother now. Plus I won't want to miss the date with my DOD (Dear Old Dad) - we are going car washing! I still hand wash my Little Red, so might as well spend some time with my DOD since he is too... Hahaha. Trust me, it's fun~

A simple lifestyle like this is so enjoying~

Card: {heart} felt

Technique class was so fun! It's always great to meet old friends and get to know new ones. It had been fun sharing the technique of book binding with others, and we chatted a lot on the way. I do hope you will make some more on your own! I'm making one notebook myself now, so it should be done soon I hope. :)

Maybe it's because my dd is going overseas for training soon, been really moody recently. Just came back from shopping with him for some thermal wear, and went to catch a movie starred by my very own niece... A local show and quite proud of the show. And very proud of my niece indeed... :)

 "We Not Naughty" Movie Poster

My niece in actual life

So there. As I was saying, I was a little moody and hence decided to spend more effort on my crafting instead. Hence, I came up with not 1 but 2 cards. Now I do feel a lot better. Lol. Can't think of life without crafting, is this sort of an addiction?

 This card is inspired by the challenge hosted by TGF. I guess that will be my dd and me 20 years down the road. I do like this stamp set by TGF quite a bit. I think the characters speak to me, and somehow I do use them more than the rest of my stamps. :)

Products:
Prima Marketing - Romantique Collection "Hedgerow"
Prima Marketing - Romantique Collection "Crumpet"
Glitz Design - "Love Nest Titles"
Basic Grey - Sugared "Element Stickers"
Lace ribbon, flowers - stash collection


Die-cuts:

Cottage Cutz - Flourish Tree

Stamps:

TGF - Grandpa & Grandma

Entering this card for the following challenge~

TGF Monday Funday #18 - Key to my heart

~~~~~~~~~~

Also did another card with more stash papers~ yay! I think i must have wished my dd was here... :)

Products:
Prima Marketing - Say It with Crystals "SIIP Swirls Pink" 
PP, pearls - stash collection


Die-cuts:

Cottage Cutz - Flourish Tree

Tim Holtz - Heart Wings

Stamps:

Magnolia Rubberstamps

Hero Arts - Wish You Were Here Stamp Set

Entering this card for the following challenge~

Just Magnolia - Sketch Challenge #141

Whoot~ it's a great crafting day! Are you making cards for your love ones this Valentine's Day? I have not decided on what to do for my dd... Haha, any suggestions? But I may not have chance to celebrate this Valentine's Day with my dd, as I might have classes on that day. :)  oh well, as the saying goes, it's Valentine's Day everyday if the pair is happy right? Hehe... 

I'm not so moody after the crafting. :) Yay!