Canoe & Camping Trip Album

I finally finished the album of our canoeing and camping trip. It took me about 3 months as I had 3 other projects simultaneously. The album turned out to be very satisfying. Turning every single page reminds me of the fun events I had in my little adventure.
Here are some pages I really like. We are going to NY, DC, and Niagara Falls for vacation soon. I’m already excited to make another travel album.

Handcarved Nightmare Before Christmas Stamp: Sally

This character is from the movie “Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas” released in 1993, a year before we came to the US. We didn’t know what Halloween was at that time, which was exactly like the main character in the movie “Jack Skellington” from Halloween town couldn’t figure out what Christmas was all about after visiting Christmas town accidentally. We were so fascinated by the movie when we watched it on video for the first time. The motion picture style was very eye catching, but what amazed us the most was that how rather a scary looking Sally looked more and more charming as the story progressed!

Spinning Halloween Lamp

Our favorite, Halloween, season is approaching and I took our Halloween spinning lampshade out of the box today.Since my husband made this lampshade for me about 10 years ago, the projection of these Halloween characters have been rotating on the walls and the ceiling every year in this season. I set the lamp on the round maple table next to the bookcase where my Halloween collections are stored.I don’t usually illuminate this bookcase, but turning the room light off and watching my favorite Halloween collections and moving projection of Halloween characters make me so happy.
The motion picture of the lamp is available in my flickr site at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8416520@N02/5085959604/in/set-72157601977713102/

Custom Order Summer Vacation Album

I have finished one of the projects I have been working on. This is a custom order album from Stephanie. She wanted us to make a beach themed premade album she can scrapbook her family photos from their summer vacation in Bahamas. I used a heavy transparency sheet for the front cover, embellishing it with water splash 3D stickers. I used an ocean wave patterned paper under the front cover and cut out the part of waves in order to change the background by showing the following page.

I added an envelope so that they can keep some travel memorabilia in it.Because the envelopes I want to use on my projects are not on the market, I make them by myself. I just look for the envelope of the right size and make a template out of it.

This is the back cover. I glued a lace paper on a cardstock and sealed it with “Mod Podge”. My initial intention was to cut the cardstock to the right size, but a new idea flashed into my mind. Instead of cutting, I folded it to make a pocket which might hold unused photos, tickets or postcards.It has been a very fun process making this album. Photos on Stephanie’s Facebook helped me a lot. I even felt as if I had been to the beach while making it. Thank you very much for giving me an opportunity to share your memory keeping project.

I enjoy being busy with 4 ongoing projects.

I am working on two custom mini album orders and our own canoe trip mini album. I also plan our vacation trip right now. My messy working table got messier! I recently purchased old wire baskets at a local flea market and I use them to organize supplies and ongoing pages for each project.They work perfectly and I love them. I am really busy with the projects but I am enjoying it.

Old Pyrex Percolator

I somehow decided to stop over a local thrift store after work yesterday. I wasn’t expecting to find any treasures as I haven’t found anything good at the store for a long time. But I was thrilled when this old 4 cup Pyrex percolator on the shelf of the kitchen aisle caught my eyes. I have seen just pots sold on thrift stores but never found a complete set. The price tag of $4.99 also surprised me! I already have 9 cup percolator but it is too large for a daily use. So, 4 or 6 cup percolator has been on my wish list.
I leave thrift stores empty handed most of the time but this is why I cannot stop going there.

On-line workshop by Jenni Bowlin

I am taking 12 weeks on-line workshop by Jenni Bowlin @ Big Picture Scrapbooking since July 2nd. It titled “Re-purpose, Re-think, Re-invent: Learning how the past can open the door to a new creative lifestyle” It has been giving me inspirational and creative opportunities and I am enjoying the workshop very much. The followings are the reviews of the first two classes.

WEEK1
According to Jenni, understanding our own creative history is important as it must have had a lot of influences on our creativities. Mine came from my parents. Dad liked to make miniature plastic models of ships, planes or castles. Mom used to teach people knitting at our house. I loved watching her creating new clothes and going craft store with her. I believe my creative mojo is in my blood! Jenni said surrounding ourselves with inspiration every day is essential to a creative lifestyle. Our assignment#1 was making an inspiration board where we can pin up anything that inspires us. And this is my inspiration board. WEEK2
Lesson 1: Re-think
Jenni said there are many creative options for using photos and recording memories besides scrapbooking only on 12x12 layouts. Altered books, collages, 3D assemblages and re-purpose jewelry are the examples of other forms of scrapbookings she gave us. She also showed us how we can creatively use items we may pass by everyday.
I love collecting antiques, vintages and old stuffs (some even says old junks) and I always wanted to create something with them. Her assignment gave me an opportunity to refresh my perspective and stimulated my creativity.
These are my Week 2 vintage milk cap creativity challenge. I hope I can use these new ideas on my ongoing projects.

Handcarved summer stamp Part 3, Bunny on Beach

I made this stamp based on my memory of going to the beach as a little kid. Not so many families were able to afford taking a vacation or going for a trip those days, but my mom used to take us to the nearby beach and it was a huge and an exciting event during summer breaks. We had no box full of toys, no DVDs, or no Nintendo but somehow we never got bored back then.

Mini Album, Remember MN

I made this album as a farewell gift for Ogino family who has been here in the US for three years and is going back to Japan at the end of this month. We all had a lot of fun together and hope they remember the time in MN as a good memory. I added blank pages at the end and lots of their friends left massages. I love the “Remember” stamp and foam stickers and used a lot in this album! Added score card of the golf course we played together. Brochure form the skate rink became one of the pages. Cut out 3D fish photo.We remember you!

Customized stamp order, Today I marry • • •

This is a customized stamp we have recently made for Michelle. The whole process of making this stamp, communicating with Michelle, was really fun. She wanted to use this stamp for her wedding programs. The size of the design is 1 ½” x 3 ½’. Our stamps are usually smaller as we want them to be versatile. So, this became the largest of all stamps we have made. Wood block was dyed and distressed as the plane wood block looked to simple for the size. We hope she likes it. We are glad to be able to take part in the creation of her wedding programs.

Handcarved stamp, customized stamp orders from St. Louis

We got two customized stamp orders from St. Louis when we visited a friend there. One of the orders was from Shiho who is a friend of our friend in St. Louis. She brought a design with her and wanted to add “Shiho’s Kitchen” under the design. This cute design only measured ¾” x ¾” and some part of it was very detailed. I could have made the design a little larger to make it easier to carve but I decided to use the original size. The bigger size didn’t look as cute as the original one.
The other order was from Madoka. She wanted a personalized stamp of cosmos flower. I designed a single cosmos flower and added her name to it, but there was too much empty space between the flower and the name. I could have filled that space with leaves if it was a design that uses other flowers, but cosmos doesn’t have pretty leaves. So, I added one more cosmos instead.

Mini Album: Animals Always

I wanted to make a mini album since we visited St. Louis Zoo in May with our friend and her 3 years old daughter. This historical zoo was originally founded in 1910 and was selected as America’s #1 zoo by Zagat Survey & Parenting Magazine. When I saw the phrase “Animals always” on the zoo sign, I decided to use it as the title of this album.

I used clearly heavy overlays from Hambly for front cover and embellished with rub-on.
The title is made with chipboard stickers and “always” flash card. I was very happy when I found that “always” flash card in my stock pile.
When I was brainstorming for the mini album in early June, I was inspired by Anthropologie JUN catalog which collaborated with Hatch Show Print. I used big alphabet stamps for every page as subtitles.
My scrapbooking ideas come from something that I may easily let it go in daily life such as the zoo sign or shop catalogs. Getting new idea is like a treasure hunting, isn’t it?

Handcarved summer stamp Part 2, Shell

This shell design couldn’t have been carved without new v-shaped gouge I recently ordered from Japan. I depend heavily on general craft knife when carving stamps but always had difficulty carving hairlines. I used to avoid hairlines as much as possible when I designed images for new stamps, but not anymore! I can carve 4 hairlines within 1/8” with the gouge.
The design look simple but I am personally very satisfied with the result.
Pastel colors inks such as light blue or light yellow would go well with the stamp.

Cross stitch framing, emergency order from St. Louis

We had been working on several orders for customized framing of cross stitch samplers. The following two cross stitch samplers were sent to us from St. Louis as emergency orders because the senders would go back to their country very soon. We had to finish the framings and send them back to St. Louis within 7 days. We had enough time to make frames and to mount samplers but what makes us nervous was that the senders asked us to pick frames for them; they might not like the one we picked. We chose lightly distressed dark navy frame for the light blue sampler, Mounted with foam under the cloth to make it 3D. We picked lightly distressed wine red frame for the other. As the other one did not have enough margins below the design, we mounted with matt to hide the edge of the sampler. Custom framed cross stitch sampler were sent back to St. Louis in time.

By the way, a friend of ours in St. Louis who referred the senders to us said that they were very happy with the frames.

Away from daily life

We went 2 days camping canoe trip to Namekagon River in Wisconsin last week. Namekagon River runs through Wisconsin countryside and we hardly saw human life along the first half of the river. We saw, heard and felt plenty of nature and enjoyed wild life to the full.
We started from County K Landing.
Encountered deer right after the departure. The first day was cloudy but wind was calm and warm. Landing on a campsite along the river. !!!!! Sunset view from our campsite. Early morning view from the campsite. Leaving for second day trip at 7 am. Turned out to be a beautiful second day.
Snack break. Beautiful flowers. Riverside Landing, the end of our 33 miles canoe trip.
I cannot wait making an album of the trip!