Xmas Card Marathon ...

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uuurggghhhHHH
Christmas season = card making time for mom.

{not being evil but merely thinking aloud}  

how is it that there are so many >60 year olds on the internet and none seems to 'expire'?  

Seriously, her friends increases by the year ... and correspondingly my cards get simpler and lazier. Back in those days I actually drew the cards with Adobe Illustrator, added the 'family' photo that evolved with Rover {the dog} being the 'baby' in the family to Bryant + Rover, and very soon JUST Bryant.

Well, unlucky for Becks, scrapbooking made a BIG entrance soon after Bryant's arrival in my life and ... heh heh ... why draw? With that, Becks never made it to any of those 'family' photo Christmas cards mom dispatches across 5 continents.

This year, it's all about Making Memories Mistletoe Collection and Fancy Pants Christmas Magic Collection being the center of attention. For the base, I use Bazzill Basics {of course!}, Scenic Route Sonoma Collection {the back of this 2-sided pattern paper has amazing potential}, and Chatter Box Loft Swirls and Olive Parlor Roses {again, amazing 'back-side' - lol}

So, here's some of the cards {a fraction of them, I should say} ... and I did say it's simple and lazy.

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  Copyrights - Penelope Gan

All items used are available at Scrap-n-Crop.com

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.P/S: I MUST get a circle punch!!! that I MUST get. You have no freaking idea how 'great' {not} it is to cut out all those Making Memories Mistletoe circular tags!!!

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gonna have some kiddy fun in a few hours ...

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 Copyrights - Penelope Gan

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Ahhh... the older kids {circa 8 years} who were aware and in the position to protest quickly demanded a sleepover! ... and for a brief 2 hours I thought I was off the hook!

See, it's not that I don't want to host this month's Crop.Arty at Scrap-n-Crop.com, but it's just that it's a KIDS's Crop.Arty and I am not great with kids... hence, the apprehension. In any case my relief only lasted 2 hours before I was told that whilst we may have lost 3 kids to a preferred sleepover, (boy, I miss those girlie slumber parties I used to have ... well, back in the day when I spotted piggy tails too) we got 4 replacements!

err... great {I suppose}

But not so great when 2 of them I am told is circa Becky's age; i.e. 2-1/2 years to 3 years and another is a adorable {but mischievous} boy who wants to make the mini album as a Christmas pressie for his nana ...ooorrrhhhh... how sweet ... but seriously ladies, come to think of it, it's NOT the kids who wants to scrap, it's the moms!!!  

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So I guess, I'll be posting photos of mom juggling between scrapping and running after their kids in a few days ... and as promised the finished product too. See ya soon! I'm off to bed to recharge before tomorrow's fun day of creating ...

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read more about this Crop.Arty at Scrap-n-Crop.com HERE.

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Mom's Maiden Trip : Mini Album in the making...

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  Copyrights - Penelope Gan

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An ambitious project - I think.
Especially at this juncture when there's so much to do at work {the one that pays the bills} and also on the Scrap-n-Crop.com Outreach Programme front. Yes, it's November ... it's gonna be December in a blink and these two months are hot! hot! hot! Outreach Programme months.

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Anyways, I thought I'll show you page-by-page of this mini album as it evolves ... the cover will be the last.

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Here's one in Agra - the Taj Mahal - though I don't gettit! What's so GREAT about it? Similarly what's so GREAT about Mona Lisa or the Eiffel Tower? or ... the list could go on and on ...

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Copyrights - Penelope Gan

My Mind's Eye Laundry Line - Sundress 'Admire' rubons applied on Prima Marketing Transparencies - 850142 to provide the layering effect.

Copyrights - Penelope Gan

Graphic 45 Botanicabella Tag set against Collage Press Margot Collection - Port Royal pattern paper 'aged' with Tim Holtz Distress Ink.

 Copyrights - Penelope Gan

Close-up detail of Collage Press Margot Collection - Port Royal pattern paper 'aged' with Tim Holtz Distress Ink - I LOVE this paper!!! So regal and yet calming.

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Mini Album layout and photo by Penelope Gan

All items used are available at Scrap-n-Crop.com

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haaarrrrvvvvvvvyyy Birthday! Sesame Street

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It's the littlest of things that makes my day ...
And of late I've been having GREAT mornings, that's to google and Sesame Street.

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Cookie Monster was definitely the winner - don't have the screen shot here. It's on the work's PC. uh huh, every morning without fail I make sure I grab and save the screen shot to savour at a later stage.

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For now, Haaaaarrrrrrrrvvvvvyyyy 90th Birthday Sesame Street!

I love thee ... !!!

{ and you are still not guessing how many decades have Sesame Street permeated my life! ha! Good try, but not a chance. hee hee }

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heh heh ... Penelope and Cutesy?

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 Copyrights - Penelope Gan

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aye . aye .

It's unnatural. It's not an everyday thing.

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Well, it's Children's Day this month and Scrap-n-Crop.com's theme for the month is around KIDS + FUN. My initial ambitious thought for a Crop.Arty was to host one for kids ... as long as you could cut, glue, splash some paint on any horizontal (not vertical - read: walls) surface and you are toilet trained... oh well, jump on the band wagon and spend some fun time with Aunty Penny.

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Thank Goodness sense and sensibility hit me fast enough.
What do I know about kids??? What if they started fighting? Hurling stuff around? What if they started crying? Screaming? What ifs...

Well, yeah at least one parent must be there ... but, no seriously, Penelope and kids???
Not yet. Not that equipped {yet}.

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So, today I 'jumped' out of bed at 9 am {considered unheard off on a Sunday morning - hence, I don't have a religion that requires Sunday morning devotion} ... and headed down to my craft room and put this 16-page (including cover) 6" x 6" mini album for KIDS for the upcoming Crop.Arty.

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Time taken?
Slightly more than 2.5 hours - hey! I need some time to deliberate since cutesy is not my thing! And I needed loads of imagination with mr. B's photos since if he's not lying, he's propped-up in a sitting position by someone or strapped in his wheel chair ... sigh! I sure do envy parents of normal kids have when it comes to the luxury of cutesy posses  - I tell ya!

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P/S: I'll be showing the whole album after the Crop.Arty in this space. Thanks!

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cobweb surprise CLEARANCE SALE = backache + sleepy eyes + headache ....

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Sale time is really madness.
The phones keeps ringing off the hook - thank god not my lines, but Val's! hee hee
Sms comes in at all hours and so does email ... crazy.

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Of course the sudden surge in traffic on the Scrap-n-Crop.com site becomes a problem as well. But thankfully we have GREAT support from our web hosting company. And double whammy for them, the boss lives within the 10 kilometers radius from us and the Scrap.Abode. So, what does this translate to?

Ha!
Poor web hosting guys (yes, men with families) are reduced to 'camping' out with us at the Scrap.Abode ... being on standby and fixing issues should they crop up.

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This year, probably because the duration is shorter and the web hosting people have been forewarned we had little bandwidth and speed issues, well, at least from the customer stand point. But oh hell, that's what we had from the administrator stand point. The invoices wouldn't go! Yup, it just wouldn't be process via the online system. One 'click' took a few minutes ... and you can just imagine how frustrating that was for us.

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More so when we spent the afternoon, night, subsequent morning and afternoon on marathon packing at the Scrap.Abode... oh, and I have to mention, it was Val's birthday. So... oops! Sorry Val. I should have thought about the dates more carefully I guess, coz it sure was depressing packing orders for the entire day and not having any time to spend with her kids and hubby ... I was a very bad stand-in I supposed, but I kept my temper in check. heh heh

Well, I am so glad we 'survived' the sale and post sale period and most of the orders have been shipped and surely by this week the remaining 23.9% discounted carts will be shipped off to! whooo hooo ...can't wait for normalcy to resume ... and a BIG thank you to the web hosting people who worked over the weekend as well as way past midnight on Sunday to ensure we brought the best possible service we could to all the supporters of Scrap-n-Crop.com

And of course, a BIG thank you to all the supporters of Scrap-n-Crop.com

{errr... we sorta met our objective of clearing some stuff to make room for new stuff, but in the days that ensued the clearance, I swear we have more new stuff than space we cleared! HELP!!!}

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...ohhh... it's been AGES!

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Yes, my dearest friends... I've been hopeless at updating this blog.

I've been even worse at completing my scrapbooking projects.

I have at least 2 mini album projects pending on my art table. err... and from wanting to make a little gift for my friend for Durga Puja (not this year's Durga Puja, but 2007's Durga Puja) ... Divali came and went ... oh, that's another 2 mini album pending to add to the originally stated 2!

So that's 2+2 = 4  
{ this does look like the Bo Bunny mini album Ali Edwards created doesn't it? }

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Feggetit!
Playing catch-up isn't going to help...

... so, while sitting on my porcelain throne today { ok. over sharing!!!! } a thought occurred to me:  

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Why not merge the blogs together?

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A little dicey, but possible.

I could merge this Scrapin' Single blog with the official Scrap-n-Crop.com blog { though I am only part owner / founder of the store, but full time administrator of the blog }

... or

I could merge this Scrapin' Single with the OTHER side of my life - the photography, travel, NGO part which deals with boring serious stuff { compared to this whimpsical girlish flight of fancy we soooo adore :) }

Let me know what you think, if any one of you are still following this blog!

I totally don't blame you if you aren't.

I wouldn't as well ... if things were so sparse and entries that far apart.

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err... I could upload half / quarter / 10% completed projects! but that's really not the point, eh? :p

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Mixed-Medium Collage Art

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Experimented for a recent crop session at Scrap-n-Crop.com ... I decided to adhere a complete canvas collage on an accordian album in a tin - Dark Room Door's - and to complete the accordian album (eventually) with my niece Becky's toys and play time photos and journaling.

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Inspired by Graphic 45's Playtime Past collection, I used only the Playtime Past tags to create the collage, along with Maya Road Scroll Chipboards, American Crafts Thickers, buttons, twine trim and wooden clothes peg.

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.Canvas prep with Gesso with textured created with tissue and distressed lightly with Tim Holtz Ranger Old Paper Distress Ink. Backgound - Heidi Swapp clear chandelier stamp stamped with Chocolate StanzOn inkpad.

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Project + Photos by Penelope Gan

All items used are available at Scrap-n-Crop.com
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