Beautiful Sunset

What I missed the most in Moorea was the time where Tommy and I could hang out and watch the sunset. I love watching the beautiful sunset by the lookout. It had an unobstructed view.

I decided to use a orange cardstock as background. Do you recall my Le Matiehani page? I used the same glitter pattern paper for this project. I bought extra at the scrapbook store in case I mess up, I still have an extra cardstock for me to work on. I managed to not make a mistake on my other layout. I was able to save the extra cardstock for another project. This layout was totally calling for it.


Instead of wasting such beautiful paper, I cut out four strips of 1x12. I used runner tape and adhered to each side of the orange cardstock.

I used my digital cutter to cut out 4 photo corners. Instead of using all 4 for one picture, I decided to use 2 corners for each of the picture for the project. I looked through my quote stack to see if there was anything I could use. I found "What a view..." in the stack. It was perfect! The color matched with the project coincidentally. I created a frame for the vellum quote as the vellum was orange. If I were to stick it over the orange cardstock, the quote would not stand out.

I also found a matching flower in my flower collection and decided to use it. It seem to go well together.


I also used my digital cutter to cut out the font. I used the Xyron X to create the sticker for the letters so I could easily adhere the letters onto the page. For the 4 photo corners, I also ran them into the Xyron X, 2 times. The first time I ran them through, I added fine white glitters on them. After dusting all the excess, I ran it through to get the other side sticky to adhere to the cardstock.

I like this page alot. It looks very simple, but pretty at the same time. I loved how I made use of the glitters on the photo corners. It gave a little bit of a sparkle, like how the water sparkled when the sun is hitting the water.

Perfect Moment

This is one of my favorite pages in this Tahiti scrapbook! This was totally out of my comfort zone and the outcome was amazing! It was a privileged that I was able to go to Tahiti. I was able to enjoy sunsets in Moorea every night. Tommy was able to capture such beautiful sunsets. I couldn't help but must create a layout for it to treasure the memory.

The page was quite simple. I used a cardstock that has a pre-printed pattern on the layout. The design on the cardstock has glitter on them too! I used the Citrus stack from DCWV.

When I buy paper stacks, if there's matching cardstocks, I would buy them too! I do that because they can easily compliment each other to lessen the headache from time to time, trying to find the right color to match.

For the frame around the picture, I used the Citrus cardstock stack from DCWV. The yellow cardstock was perfect when I put this layout together! I used my silhouette digital cutter to cut the title out.

I picked up a Xyron "X" sticker machine. I was able to cut the font much smaller! I put all the letters in the machine and it created stickers for me. I love the Xyron! It took my creativity to a whole new level.

I also added flowers as embellishments. I used 2 different sizes flowers and put them on top of each other and put a rhinestone on top of it.


I decided to do something different on my journaling. Instead of writing a small journal on how I felt or my experience, I decided to write create a poem for this layout.

Le Matiehani

With a little extra money to pay on top of the meal plan, Tommy and I decided to make a reservation at Le Matiehani, resort's fancy restaurant. We both enjoyed the dinner. The restaurant had about 4-5 tables in the main dining area, and a couple tables outside. We were actually the only couple sitting inside the dining area. It felt like we were in Chinese Soap Opera, where the rich guy reserved the entire restaurant to take his date out for nice dinner, and perhaps even had a rock in his pocket. It was a picture perfect scenario! That didn't happen to us! We just happened to be the only one in the main dining room dining. Either Tommy nor I are rich enough to reserve the entire restaurant just to cater to us. Lastly, hunnie got no rock in his pocket to seal the picture perfect moment! :(

I decided to do a double layout. I made a fancier looking page on one side, and on the other side, I decided make a page of the food we ordered. I used 2 black cardstock papers as the background and used a glitter orange cardstock to layer on top of the black background.

While I was shopping at one of my local scrapbook stores, I noticed they hung a layout on the wall that I couldn't keep my eyes off it. I was inspired by it, and decided to shop in the store for the necessary materials to make my page.

I scroll through my pictures on my iPhone and found the picture that I wanted to use for my layout. From the picture, I chose a color and work along with it to incorporate it with my layout.

The layout above is not 100% exactly the same as the layout I saw at the scrapbook store. It was almost the same concept, but slightly different.

I used a pencil to draw a curve line over the orange cardstock and used a pair of scissor to cut along the line. I kept the top part, and kept the rest of the unused paper in my scrap box for future use. I adhere the picture onto the page and added flowers along the edge where the 2 papers met. I randomly picked different colors and sizes flowers and randomly placed them along the edge. I used runner tapes to adhere the flowers onto the page and added pearls in the center of each flower.

I cut the fonts out from my digital cutter. I decided to size the letters in bigger font to put the title across the page.

On the right side of the layout, I arranged the photos according to appetizer - main course - dessert. I separated our orders. Can you guess which one side was mine?

This page had a lot of pictures and overloaded with information. I kept this page simple. I resized all 6 pictures. I rounded the top right corner of the appetizer picture on the left, the top left corner of the appetizer picture on the right. I also rounded the bottom right corner of the dessert picture on the left as well as the bottom left corner of the dessert picture on the right. I only rounded 4 corners to give a softer edgy look on this layout.




Because I resized the pictures, there was extra space on the bottom of the layout. I found an orange with yellow dots ribbon. The color of the ribbon complimented the layout on the left. I decided to put the ribbon on the bottom of the page on the right.



I purchased a jar of flowers for the layout on the left. Because there were quite a bit of the flowers, I didn't use them all up for the layout. Since there were extra flowers in different color and sizes, I decided to layer the flowers in 3 different sizes to create a giant flower embellishment. I also added a pearl in the middle. I used runner tape to adhere all the flowers together.


We probably spent over 2 hours dining at the restaurant that evening. People in French Polynesia was very relaxed and easy going. We tried to be like them, take things slow and enjoy life. Our dining experience was great, and the food was delicious. With just an additional amount of money to pay for the dinner, it felt like that our meal was a steal! We surely enjoyed our dining experience at Le Matiehani.

Air Moorea

Our travel itinerary did not include being in Tahiti. Once we cleared customs, we walked to other side of the airport to fly out to Moorea! Moorea was only 10 minutes away by plane! It was my first time to be flying in a 2-propellers plane. The view was amazing because the plane was flying a bit low, we could see the corals underneath the crystal clear water.

I decided to use grey color as background with orange accents. I chose that because I used the color based from one of the pictures taken and used for the layout. What caught my attention was the design of the Air Moorea. The plane was painted with orange hibiscus flowers. I purchased the hibiscus flower from silhouette and cut the design with orange cardstock paper to match the design on the plane. It was my first time to cut shapes other than fonts from the cutter. I picked out the grey background because the picture was a bit gloomy that morning.

I kept this page simple. I cascaded the pictures and wrote a small journal.

What I love about this page is the simplicity of the layout. I like the journal tag I created. The ribbon matched perfectly with the rest of the layout. There are some colors that I am not a big fan of, and I tend to keep the color to blue, green, white and black as they are more of the basic color for me to work with. The color orange considers to be quite daring, but I somehow pulled it off, and very happy with the result.

If I were to redo this page, only thing I would do is use a corner punch to round the corners of each picture. All three pictures were not cut into same size. I would make them all in equal length and width.

That's it for now. Follow me next time to see where Tommy and I headed to on our first day in Moorea!

Wine Tasting @ Santa Ynez Valley

Santa Ynez was my first wine tasting trip with Tommy. Believe it or not, after this trip, we fell in love of doing wine tasting tours and had to go to Napa Valley a month after. After we left Ojai, we drove up to Santa Ynez Valley for wine tasting. We watched the movie, "Sideways," and we picked two wineries off their list to visit.

This was a simple layout. I used only one sheet of cardstock as the background. I chose brown as the background because of the pictures in the background. Not only that, we went to visit in September, the beginning of Fall season. I wanted to use "earthy" tones for my layout.

I cut out fonts from my Silhouette cutter. Some of the fonts were smaller and they were difficult to put on the page because I didn't have the right tools to adhere them. When it comes to scrapbooking, I don't like to use glue unless it is absolutely necessary. I use runner tapes to tape everything down on the page. Not until I was 1/3 way into working on my first travel album, I decided to pick up the Xyron X to make my life easier.

For the smaller fonts, I had to pick out tiny stripes off the runner tapes and add the tapes to the font one by one by hand. I had to carefully place the tapes on each letter and had to make sure the tapes were not showing on the edges of each font.

The problem about this page was the printout of the wine map. I tri-folded the map, added a ribbon to wrap around the map, and taped the back of map to the layout. If the page doesn't have a protector cover, this would work. However, all my albums have protector covers for each sheet. I will have to cut a hole on the protector cover so I can access the map. When I have time, I will put try to figure out what to do.

As for embellishment, I decided to use rub-on to keep the page simple. The great thing about rub-ons is how simple it is to transfer designs to the project. All I need is a popsicle stick and continue to rub the design off the sheet. If done correctly, the entire design gets transferred to the project!

If I were to fix this layout, I would add frames to the pictures and round the corners with the corner punch. I would probably shrink the map to keep the entire map flat on the layout without the need to fold and write out the places we went on a tag.

Happy Monday!

Ojai, CA

Ojai, a small little town in Ventura County, won my heart. I cannot forget how nice and peaceful the place was. I keep wanting to return for a longer stay on the weekend to spend more time in town. Ojai is known for the "Pink Moment." I tried to capture the moment on camera, but didn't seem to do too well.

I chose to use orange as a background and used pink and green pattern papers to put this single layout together. I kept the layout simple by alternating the pattern papers. This was my first scrapbook page that I used my Silhouette Cutter. I decided to do something simple, and cut letters with it. I also decided to overlap part of the pictures.

I decided to print out a google map to show the hotel we stayed, the restaurant we dined at to add a little extra touch to my layout. This way, I would never forget where I went when I visited Ojai back in 2008.

I liked the color of the page. I totally loved the cutter as I didn't have to spend hours to cut each letter out by hand! If I were to redo this page, I would give this page a new title, other than calling it as, "Ojai, CA."

Looks like this is my last entry for the month of March. Hopefully, I will continue to post just as much in April. I am doing my best to balance my time of posting and scrapbooking.

Napa Valley

My first weekend trip with Tommy, and we decided to take a road trip up to San Francisco and Napa Valley. We took my dad's BMW (which I paid lease on, and besides, his car was way under mileage! Totally took advantage of it.) We drove to San Francisco on Friday night and didn't arrive there until past midnight. We woke up early on Saturday morning to head to Napa Valley for our wine tasting adventure for the day. I am not going to be blogging about my wine tasting adventure in this blog. I will eventually blog about it in my travel blog, if I ever get to it.

We picked out 4 wineries we wanted to visit, but during our adventure, we took some advices from local wineries to visit some "must-visit" places. We ended up with 5 wineries for wine tastings, 1 winery for lunch, 1 winery for picture perfect view (winery closed by the time we got there!) and 1 winery that we couldn't tour because their tour was fully booked. We visited a total of 8 wineries!



I decided to do a double layout to showcase the wineries we went to. I decided to use a orange background because we went to Napa in October. Orange color reminds me of Fall season. I drew dotted lines on the layout to represent how we toured Napa Valley. I used a journal tag to list out the wineries we went to by order. I used Jolee's dimensional stickers as my embellishments for my layout.

What I like about this layout is the color. Everything seemed to match really well. I really like how I position each picture. It gave a playful, uplifting feel to the layout. I tried to do some stamping and embossing, unfortunately, it failed because I didn't have the right tool at that moment to emboss. I eventually gave up on the idea of stamping and embossing on this layout. Nonetheless, this page became one of my favorite.

Have a great weekend! :)

Turning 67

This was my first double layout. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I was putting this layout together.

I decided to do a double layout for my dad's birthday as he turned 67 couple years ago. This year, he will be turning 70! Oh my, how time flies! It is not until I looked back at this page until I realized that he is going to be 70 this year. I am blessed to have him supporting me all the time. I am truly blessed that he has good health, and really, he just doesn't look that old to me.

This layout was rather simple as I was still trying to figure how to put different pattern papers together to look great. I ended up cutting strips pattern paper to create a border instead since I was pretty confused at that time.


The letters were hand cut by a pair of scissor. It wasn't as difficult to cut because the letters were much bigger, and much easier to cut. However, I had to cut double as I used 2 different cardstocks for the letters. The yellow letters were slightly raised. I used 3d foams to make them raised.

I used ink stamp to stamp the date of the event. It was a pack of wooden stamps with individual alphabet on each end. It was my first rubber stamp I owned. The most difficult part of stamping was aligning all the letters. I had a tendency to shift things upward or downward. In order to keep it straight, I had to use pencil and ruler. Once the stamp part was done, I had to go back and erase the line.

This layout is probably the most simplest double layout I had ever created. It's not my most favorite page, but when I look at it again, I grew to like this page in a strange way.