Japan Layouts (Vol III)

Hi everyone, this is volume III of layouts from our Japan trip - that trip was taken back in 2015, and is slowly and steadily getting scrapbooked! :) Here's vol I. and vol II. Let's see how many volumes I'll need to complete the album of our awesome trip!

We had never been to Osaka so this time we booked an AIRBnB which turned out to be the best ever (let me know if you need a recommendation) and explored this bustling city. Dontonburi is all about the food and it does not let its name down! Every part of the street was packed with street food and restaurants and the markets area was so fascinating with all kinds of seafood like you'd never seen before. We also tried doing some thrifting - vintage clothes stores in Japan are really amazing - they look like any other high end boutique and all the clothes are beautifully styled and labelled and makes for a lovely shopping experience!

But Kyoto is still our favourite city and like many will say, we call it the 'real Japan' :)

Although we visited at the end of November, that year Autumn arrived late and we got to see the fantastic Autumn colours on display! Well as you can see, it is not possible to take a bad photo that day.

Then we also took an entire afternoon just walking and wandering along what is called the Philosophers' walk - which is actually a canal really, that is beautiful. We can imagine philosophers of old walking here and sprouting philosophical truths. We came up with some of our own too!

On one of the days we were in Osaka we took a day to visit Mount Koya, or Koya San. It is a quiet mountain with many templates and monks and pilgrims. The best part is the visit to Okunoin cemetery, set deep in the woods, that is something like four hundred years old, and is just a moving experience, with hundreds of preserved tombstones - that told of amazing stories.

After Osaka we took the train north and landed at Matsumoto, a mountain town with a superb castle. It is always magical to visit and climb a Japanese castle. The men enjoyed looking at all the military installations and weaponry and the like.

You can find the photoshop templates for these layouts in the store here.

Project Life

Guess what, for 2017, I have switched to a 9x12 format! I'm having fun with it, it is a smaller album, I work mostly with 3x4 pockets to tell random everyday stories, and it is making me happy :) 

This is my cover page.

I don't blog so often now but you can follow my PL pages on instagram here

Hybrid Layout

Sometimes we get a chance to make a really special and precious layout - my brother and I recently found these photos of our parents on their honeymoon that I don't think I have seen before. Our dad had passed away when we were young and our mom was both happy and sad to talk about this time in their lives. I am so glad I got to tell this story and add it to my PL album. One day I want to work on our heritage photos but for now I will get whatever I can into my current albums! 

Embellishments from Bond and Root Story kits from Ali Edwards

And because I am now in the 9x12 format, this was done in 9x12 format and so I will share the template as it is, but you can easily adapt it to another size if need be.

Download here, have fun creating!

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Blessed, Grateful, Amazed - best of 2016

Blessed, Grateful, Amazed -

these were the feelings welling up inside of me as I looked back at our 2016. Indeed God has blessed us and carried us through twists and turns, and gave us much, much to be thankful for. We give all thanks and praise to Him. I wish I can share more, but these days I have to be more private on the blog, especially at the request of my teens :)

But I can share through some of my layouts!

Year in Review

I don't know how non-scrapbookers do it, but I reviewed our year by looking through our project life album :) and picked out anything significant or memorable or just note-worthy for this layout. It took some time narrowing them down, but finally I have 18 highlights selected.

Following Ali Edwards' prompt in her December 'Review' Storykit, I completed statements starting with 'This is the year .......'  and here is our 2016 in review:

Highlights of our year include many firsts:

Jared and Ryan entering college and university respectively 

Ryan taking the family out with his first paycheck..

Ryan and me studying Revelations with BSF (Bible Study Fellowship)

Ryan's first mission trip (can you tell a lot is happening with this young man!)

My learning how to surf (well almost)

Hubby picking up guitar

My mom in law's step in faith in Baptism (praise the Lord!)

Me 'coming-out' from my semi-wig after 1.5 years suffering from alopecia (yay!)

Us conquering the 'best day hike in the world' in NZ (Tongariro Alpine Crossing0

and so on!

Some close-ups of this hybrid layout:

First I did all the photos and journaling in photoshop (psd template download link below). Then printed it out on A4 Canon Pixma photo paper. Finally added the giant numbers (from Ali's store) and the acrylic 'review' and 'life in review' chipboard piece from the storykit. You might notice this year I've caught onto the hybrid train and love that I can still have the ease of digital scrapbooking plus some of the lovely touch and feel of physical embellishments. Most of my physical stuff are from Ali Edwards because I just get so inspired by her and the ladies in her facebook group, and most of my little stash are from her store :)

Here is the free photoshop template for anyone wanting to try this out! (click on image to download)

Memory Keeping Year in Review

This year I have scaled down my posting on this blog due to my now full time work, and to respect the greater privacy my kids want. I do miss sharing and chatting in this space! But this has allowed me time to enjoy and complete a lot of memory keeping of my own. So at this end of year season, let me share a bit more of my pages and projects, like a scrapbooking year in review!

Project Life Layouts
I still love documenting our lives through PL and these are some of my favorite layouts this year that I've not posted before: (I do post more on instagram @yin_dgs)

May and June Stories - as you can see I have gotten into the habit of writing a lot of stories down that I do not have photos for - love capturing stories!

Another story focused layout for our short island resort trip

Trip to London in June

October staycation to celebrate hubby's big birthday

From our trip to New Zealand in December (not much journaling as those were captured in my travelers' notebook)

And finally New Year's Eve!

Day in the Life 
In July I joined in with everyone to document a Saturday in our life (blog post here)

And again in October where I recorded a day in each of our lives (blog post here) - this was so cool as we spend much of our days separately nowadays

Trip layouts
This is getting the lowest priority this year but I will continue to document our trips digitally and get some templates out of them :)
As you can see I'm venturing away and trying new styles - to satisfy my creative curiosity - might go back - or who knows where my fancy will lead!

London layouts (various posts see here )

Krabi layouts (link to post here)

Japan layouts (various posts here and here)

Mini Albums/ Projects
Of course I couldn't stop at just PL and trip layouts! LOL

30 Days of Lists 1
Printed my digital lists from last few years into a minibook (link to post here)

30 Days of Lists 2
Did my 2016 list in physical format (posted more on instagram @yin_dgs)

London Travelers' Notebook (link to post here)
Nowadays I always bring the notebook to journal on the trip and add photos when I'm home - really love this way of documenting my trips!

New Zealand Travelers' Notebook (link to instagram here)
In our most recent trip I journaled and added memorabilia on the trip - you can see the video flip through of it on instagram here
Am in progress of adding photos to the notebook and will make a post of that some time soon  :)

I'll post the video here too but the resolution may not be so good

MILK moleskin photobook
I made this photobook of our June trip as a gift for my mom. The quality is amazing! I will have to find time to share this is a post soon!

Scrapbook Layouts (see post here)
Also quite a few layouts like this one inspired by Ali Edwards' hybrid class

Now isn't that quite a shocking amount of scrapbooking in one year? I am actually quite shocked, I must be spending too much time on this! But definitely enjoyed every minute of it. But best of all, just the other day, I left my PL album on the table and when I came back, found my nearly twenty year old laughing and reading the album - I'd say this proves it is all worth it!

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Japan Layouts (volume II)

Hi everyone,

I'm back with four more layouts for my Japan album! After a long stretch of stressful long days at work, things have finally settled down and I have been putting in a lot of time doing my favourtie thing! So lots of layouts recently to share :)

I've decided to call these posts Japan layouts - vol xx. Here's vol I. and this is vol II. Let's see how many volumes I'll need to complete the album of our awesome trip!

Yes on this afternoon we visited a Rabbit Cafe. Did you know Japan has dog, cat, rabbit and even owl cafes?  We thought we have to visit at least one - and since Jared has wanted to keep rabbits since he was very young, we went for it! He had to don a mask due to his allergies but that did not stop us from having a fabulous time!

On the right side of the layout above, I digi-stamped Ali Edwards' word art using photoshop - an idea I got from her Hybrid class - easy technique for great effect!

It's a cafe, so you have to purchase their cake and coffee/tea set meals, and you get to have an hour with the rabbits! They were so cute and adorable. We bought some 'veggy' snacks for them, and they practically pranced at us to get their snacks!

Next day we visited the Ghibli Museum. Totally whimsical and quirky just like the movies by Mr Miyazaki. Enjoyed it tremondously though if you have young children they will be even more enchanted! We can't take pictures inside the museum, so we made up for it by taking pictures of the outside :)

The afternoon is spent wondering this beautiful town and shops - 'Loved this day'!

Next day we spent a day at another outskirt of Tokyo town - Shiimokitazawa. As this is our 3rd trip to Tokyo over the years we wanted to venture beyond the usual tourist zones and this was reported as the latest hip and happening towns especially for thrifting so off we went!

There were indeed cool and hip cafes and shops all around, but in terms of thrifting it was all winter clothes and boots so really not suitable for us. But we do enjoy the strolling, window-shopping a lot. I'll be back in summer one day!

The next day we had taken the train to Osaka and in the first evening decided to visit the world famous Kaiyukan Aquarium. It totally lived up to its fame. We thought we had seen a lot of world=class aquarium, but this mesmorized us. Maybe because it was freezing and dark outside, we were completely absorbed into this underwater world.

You wind through four floors around this giant four storey tank and it looks different and fascinating from every angle. We still talk about it now and then, what a memory!

On the left side of the layout I again used multiples of Ali Edwards' word art. I've discovered I love the look of using word art as embellishments as it is more grown-up less cutesy look I now like. I also find that for this Japan album I wanted a linear flat look, so I try to have my elements look 'flat' and not 3D. Not sure if you get my drift, or why I'm so particular about this, I can never explain myself in terms of design very well. I'm more of a 'wing it' till I like it - kind of scrapper! 

All of these layouts are up in the store as templates. 

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Things Currently Sparking Joy

I've had a great weekend scrapbooking! Lots to share.

Here is a layout I made from a template by Ali Edwards from her hybrid class. It's such a versatile template that I can see myself using for any number of topics. 

But first, these are the things currently sparking Joy for me.

1. Our scrapbooks, from 2007 to 2016, where our stories are told, where our lives are captured, where hundreds of wonderful hours have been poured, proof that we have lived!

2. Gim got this for our 14th anniversary in NYC and I’ve collected charms from our travels and it tells of our adventures and love and it brings me joy every time I wear it!

3. These were an early birthday gift and I use them everyday! At the gym to watch scrapbook videos and on the bus for podcasts - they don’t fall out of my ears - a definite plus!

4.The Raskog trolley! Now there’s no need to go back and forth to get my supplies out, then keep everything after. So easy now to find everything - it swivels! Love!

And there it is, the layout itself sparking joy too.

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Our Day in the Life - x4!

Today I want to share these Day in the Life pages I just did which means so much to me!

I love documenting. Love recording our lives so as to remember, to savour it, to know we have lived, and how we've lived! So I've always loved the Day in the Life project (by Ali Edwards) but most days in our family are spent apart now that the boys are grown up. Thanks to a magazine page posted by someone in the AE Craft the Story facebook group, I thought how nice if I could do a page for each of our days!

I showed the page to the hubs and the older son, and both said "yes"! Hey, I was honestly surprised, some of me has rubbed off on them! But then younger one said "no" flat out :(  I will find a way!

Each of us set out on different days to capture our day - I asked for at least 12 to 15 photos, and simply made a grid template on 8.5x11 which I will print on photo paper at home. Also added journaling and a section called 'Fun Facts'

Now for the younger Jared, because I knew he had a day spent setting up an art exhibition at school, we simply inserted photos we took at said exhibition to fill up his DITL. I also journaled about how he won't take pictures at this time :) Considered done!

 After pulling the photos into the template, I color-coordinated and printed some digital elements from Ali Edwards'Hybrid class and Up digital kit, cut and adhered them together with a wood veneer each. Totally loved how they turned out, but best of all, I'm so happy our individual days now are recorded, at work, at college and at University.  Isn't that great?

If you'd like to try something similar you can download this very simple 8.5x11 template here.

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Japan Trip Layouts

It's been a while, but I am finally completed some double pages of our last year's trip to Japan!

For some reason, I've been playing with physical scrapbooking recently, isn't that interesting? It's probably direct result of being in the Ali Edwards' Craft your Story facebook group, and the 30Days of Lists group. So much inspiration!

So for this trip album, I decided to approach it differently, in a more linear, grid style, with highlights, title and journaling on the left page, and more photos on the right. And embellishments as desired :)

I'm very happy with how they turned out!

The inspiration for this style was from the Day in the life pages I did in June, inspired by the Ali Edwards community. You can try the free template in the blog post here

For the DITL I used Ali Edwards' Everyday Boxes and WhoWhatWhereWhy Boxes which were perfect!

I also have her FamilySentiment boxes and SummerPassport ones 

Ali has a lot more in her shop! They were what I needed to get on with the new theme I have planned for the Japan album.

Here's a close look at each of the pages and the first days of our trip :)

This was the first evening upon our arrival in Tokyo. It was such a thrill! We went straight for a genuine bowl of ramen in a tiny joint and then to the Evangelion store the boys had been looking forward to. We are in Japan!

The next morning we made our way to Yokohama. We had never been here before. The morning was just spent walking around this lovely city on a bright and lovely day. The pier area was amazing. I do love the start of a holiday with my family!

The title and journaling and one or two key photos is presented on the left side of the double page.

 And on the right is the grid for the rest of the photos, with space for word art such as Ali Edwards' fabulous ones!

My impression of this coastal city is the wide expanse and broad sidewalks, so good to wander around, checked out the chinatown, the museum of technology, and we also went to the Cosmo World!

You can see on the left side I layered more embellishments to go with the selected enlarged photos being highlighted.

The Cup Noodles museum is a must-do as the boys love cup noodles! It was so much fun 'making' our own custom cup of noodles!

All that on the first day in Japan! I am always so happy to scrap and relive our trips. Each day an adventure. Stay tuned for Day 2 soon!

Templates in the store!

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