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Documenting life in Shanghai

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  • hello!
  • Courses
  • #the100dayprojects
  • Art Journal Projects
  • Events & Press
  • Snippets

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  • Documenting Life,  Scrapbook,  Travel journals,  Travels

    Travel Journal | Saigon

    July 24, 2018 / No Comments

    My first “solo” trip in a long time without the kids. This year they decided to join their school trips and so I ended up going to Ho Chi Minh with my colleagues. Saigon is one of those places I’ve been wanting to go and it was great to have had this chance to explore places with the team and on my own. Definitely an adventure! On this trip I used a TN insert to document the trip and managed to get most pages done during the trip and added a couple full page photos when I returned. I did a lot of quick sketches which I quite love as…

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  • Documenting Life,  Scrapbook,  Travel journals,  Travels

    Travel Journal | Philippines 2018

    July 11, 2018 / 1 Comment

    This travel journal was done a couple months ago but never got to share with so many things on my to-do list. This cover is a custom-made album cover which is 1 of the 3 I got made. For this size, I got the guy to etch the geotag and “GO” on the cover to see how it works. This is a different size from the other mini albums as I thought I’d test out a “personal planner insert” size. There is always room for adding little bits and pieces from your travels, so don’t limit yourself. I added some sand and some small seashells we gathered. This gives my…

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    December Daily 2017

    February 15, 2018 / No Comments

    Another year and another December Daily done! Cannot believe that this is my 9th year of documenting our December days. I love looking at these albums on the shelf in varying thickness… I’m actually running out of space now (LOL!). Anyways, this album was long done back in December, I just never got the chance to take photos and video due to the bad weather and not having the right setup. So I am finally sharing my album. I also made a video taking you through the entire album. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KLg6t7Z2s8&w=560&h=315%5D Thank you for looking. SaveSave SaveSave

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  • Documenting Life,  Scrapbook,  Travel journals,  Travels

    Travel Journal | Kalanggaman Island

    January 12, 2018 / No Comments

    On our recent adventure to the southern part of Leyte, Kalanggaman Island, I decided to create a travel journal after we returned to Shanghai as I didn’t get much chance to do it while there. Although this island is off the main island, somehow it still is part of Palompon. Getting there from Tacloban is not as difficult as I thought it to be. We hired a private van from Tacloban, which took about 2.5 hours. And then had a boat waiting for us in Palompon to take us to the island, which was another 1 hour. While waiting for our boat, the skies started to get dark and was…

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  • Documenting Life,  Scrapbook,  Travel journals,  Travels

    Travel Album | USA+CAN Summer 2017 (Part 2)

    November 10, 2017 / No Comments

    And now for part 2… This one takes more than half of the entire album and if full of postcards picked along the route during the road trip that spanned a few days. One of the page designs I made which is printed onto patterned paper. Will make this available for free download soon. These set of stamps from here were perfect for the trip. Postcards that double as photographic keepsake (above) and spot for journaling or photo (below) are my favourite. A lot of stitching on my sewing machine (above page) were added to give more tactile feel of the page. Thanks to my sis, Angie, for saving this…

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  • Documenting Life,  Scrapbook,  Travel journals,  Travels

    Travel Album | USA+CAN Summer 2017 (Part 1)

    November 3, 2017 / No Comments

    Here is another post about my travel album from this summer’s big trip to the US and Canada. This album is rather thick and have already limited the number of photos I have included in this post… and still I feel I need to create a 2-part blog post due to the amount of photos. The album cover is something I’ve had for years but just never got the chance to use. The inside has a painted pattern from a stencil using a thick layer of this medium. As with the travel albums I do, some pages have been pre-designed and patterned papers cut to size. I also designed a…

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  • Documenting Life,  Scrapbook,  Travel journals

    Postrip Part 3: Silk Road Travel Album

    September 22, 2017 / No Comments

    This is a 3-part series showcasing the travel albums that are currently on exhibit at the Shanghai Mass Art Gallery (上海群众艺术馆) in Shanghai. You can also read more about this event at the Postcrossing blog. Finally, the last installment is a very mini travel journal. This was documenting our trip to the Silk Road, specifically Dunhuang. This destination has been in my bucket list for almost 20 years! Yes, I have been dreaming of visiting Dunhuang ever since I started studying Traditional Chinese Painting in Tianjin’s Nankai University back in 1994. My classmates showed me photos of when they went,  the paintings on the caves, what they had  painted and…

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  • arlyna Philippines 2014
    Documenting Life,  Scrapbook,  Travel journals

    Postrip Part 2: Philippines Travel Album

    September 15, 2017 / 2 Comments

    This is a 3-part series showcasing the travel albums that are currently on exhibit at the Shanghai Mass Art Gallery (上海群众艺术馆) in Shanghai. You can also read more about this event at the Postcrossing blog. This second post is about the our trip to the Philippines. Originally we were to go to my hometown Tacloban City, but Typhoon Haiyan/ Yolanda happened and we could only get to Manila. So this travel journal documents what we ended up doing during that year’s Winter Break during the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year. This cover is made from acrylic which I ordered from a local online store, cut to a 6×6 inch…

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  • Documenting Life,  Scrapbook,  Travel journals

    Postrip Part 1: Europe Travel Album

    September 8, 2017 / No Comments

    This is a 3-part series showcasing the travel albums that are currently on exhibit at the Shanghai Mass Art Gallery (上海群众艺术馆) in Shanghai. You can also read more about this event at the Postcrossing blog. This travel album (I can’t exactly call it a journal anymore as it’s so so so thick that I had to make and customize a new album as soon as we returned from the trip!) commemorates our – me and my 2 kids – first big trip together. Yes, this was made back in 2013 but still love leafing thru these pages every time I get a chance. I also just realized that I did…

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  • Documenting Life,  Scrapbook,  Travel journals,  Travels

    Travel Journal | Australia

    March 31, 2017 / No Comments

    This travel journal has taken the longest to complete I think, out of the travel journals I’ve made. One of the reasons was I did not do any of the pages while on this trip because I ran out of batteries on my Instax Share just as I was about to start on it. And by the time we found the batteries, we were nearly at the end of our trip! So I only did this entire journal after returning to Shanghai in between the crazy work schedule. But it is finally done and glad to be sharing some of the pages. This notebook was actually done last year when…

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