Ztampfilicious

It’s the end of March, when cheerful Spring time is supposed to replace the cold winter. Alas, in many parts of the world, mine included, winter is so persistent to stay longer than usual. But every winter must end, and spring is finally coming! You can just stop nature…

Earlier this month though, nature brought a catastrophe at unbelievable scale to the resilient people in Japan. So many lives destroyed within minutes and the aftermath brought utterly terrible suffering, made even much worse by man made nuclear disaster. It’s just beyond believe – and my heart goes out to them. You can make donations to help them through some reliable organizations. Remember: Every little bit counts!

On a cheerier note, we have a brand new Z!Girl, in case you haven’t notice! Get to know her and read about an impromptu outing on Ztampfilicious Blog:

Give Hope	Brand New Z!Girl	Saturday Night Outing

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Have you seen the latest ztampfilicious things? Check these out:

Festive, unique and adventurous, full of feelings and life… You’ll love this Lumiere Paper Pack with its brilliant playful colors! Many versatile uses for them: party, celebration, art journal, music concert, dance shows, carnivals, teenager, bon fire events, and more!

Create various dreamy looks on your photos quickly and easily with the brand new Hipstagramix Dreamy Set, a perfect companion to the Hipstagramix Grunge Set below. Instantly create hip and cool photos like those created with various popular apps in the iPhone!

Warm yourself with the flaming backgrounds in this Furnace PaperPack!

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Inspiration: the action or power of moving/influencing the intellect or emotions.

Inspirations can be found anywhere, and it could motivate us in our daily life. Two weeks ago, a day after the tsunami that has smashed Japan, I bought a stem of flower. It has white small blossoms with very faint fragrance – barely registered. But it looked so pretty and dainty on its thick sturdy green stem. I just fell in love with it. It was HK$18 – or about US$2.30; not cheap for a single stem, but it is definitely worth it!

Watching the buds growing and blossoming somehow gives me hopes for Japan. Somehow, this little flower became a symbol of hope for Japan for me. It is called Ornithogalum. Every day, I watched the little buds getting bigger and then blossomed into pretty little white flowers. When I first got it, there was just one full blossom with another one was in progress. The following days, more buds were blossoming. It keeps on blossoming after 2 weeks now! Pretty amazing eh. And it’s so pretty too. Notice how the buds on the top were growing and then blossoming while the first blooms are now shrivelling down. Regeneration. Life prevails. Life goes on. There is hope. Always.

Background paper: Lumiere PaperPack, Lace: BeLaced Kit, Tabs: Adventouriste Journaler. All by Studio Ztampf!

A small thing of beauty can be so meaningful. Do you have similar experience? What inspires you?

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Let’s see what else we have in Studio Ztampf! to welcome Spring – many are on sale too right now:

The fun set of Pinned Petals above is very versatile to add a cheerful springy feel to you projects.

Who doesn’t take delights in blowing bubbles? This is so fun to use, many playful possibilities with all the provided elements:

Flowers are started to bloom and more will do as the weather gets warmer. Butterflies and birds fluttering happily amongst the colorful flowers in the Paper Park Kit:

If you haven’t got this Bohemian Rhapsody, you really should take a closer look. It is one of my all-time-favorite! Bohemian Rhapsody Package Saving with BONUS is also available!

Find more unique and beautiful Spring-related things at the shop by entering the keyword “spring” in the Search field there! Or just go to the Spring Section under Studio Ztampf!

If you missed it, it’s not too late to grab some pretty things from the Valentine Blog Train:

Well, if you are a fan of Ztampf! Digital Artistry at Facebook, you should have received the Update Message with the coupon to download this fun Socialite Kit for free – the only way to get this kit because it is not for sale! So just hit the Like Button to become a fan and get the Socialite Kit (plus some more goodies!).

Now, last but not least… Your Special Coupon to get 25% OFF on your next purchase at Studio Ztampf! It is valid for anything in the shop, including Professional Use Licenses – through Thursday, March 31st 2011. Don’t miss it! Use Code: zpringit25.

But wait! For those new to Ztampf!, Ztampfever or Ztampf! at Facebook… Do you want a free, exclusive kit not available anywhere else? This kit is inspired by Facebook – obviously, but it is also versatile for many other ocassions.

Well, if you are a fan of Ztampf! Digital Artistry at Facebook, you should have received the Update Message with the coupon to download this fun Socialite Kit for free – the only way to get this kit because it is not for sale! So just hit the Like Button to become a fan and get the Socialite Kit (plus some more goodies!).

That’s it for now, folks! I hope you enjoy this little Ztampfever so far! If you have any comments, or suggestions, please do not hesitate to let me know by e-mail, or Ztampf! Facebook Page. Thank you!

And don’t forget to use your special coupon above ;)

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Let us all sending our positive thoughts and prayers and hopes for those affected by the terrible terrible catastrophe in Japan…

You can make donations to help them through these reliable organizations – every little bit counts:

Medecins Sans Frontieres |  The Red Cross HK |  The Red Cross US

 

As luck would have it, my dear brother gifted me an iPhone for my birthday. Yes, it was quite a while ago – it was a belated gift. But when the gift is an iPhone, you wouldn’t complain, would you? :) My old Nokia happened to be dying at that time too, so it was well timed! Frankly, I almost never use it for phone calls. But one of the things I do use a lot is taking photos with my iPhone!

Two of the photography apps that I most often use are Hipstamatic and Instagram. They make taking cool looking photos very easy and fun with their arrays of photo edges and filters. This has inspired me to create this set that I named Hipstagramix in homage to the source of the inspiration.

Your photos will look instantly hip with the brand new Ztampf! Hipstagramix Grunge Set! Currently this product is hidden in the shop – only those with the link could access it (click the preview image below). Aaaaand, just for you: an Early Bird Coupon to get this set at just $1.99 instead of $2.99! Use this coupon code at checkout: EARLYHIPSTER. Valid through this weekend only, so don’t wait up too long or you’ll miss out!

This Hipstagramix Grunge provides you with 6 photo-edges/borders + 6 photo overlays + 6 custom drop shadows + a square clipping mask for the photo (5″x5″). Mix and match these elements and you will get a variety of awesome ‘filters’. Combine two or more overlays with two or more borders, you’ll get even more! Play with the opacity levels and layer blending mode – the possibilities are endless! You’ll have fun using this set and you’ll love how it transform your photos!

This Hipstagramix Grunge is just the first of the series, so watch out for more soon!

I hope you all are enjoying your weekend!

We had a nice impromptu Saturday night outing here! Yesterday afternoon we went to see “True Grit” in the cinema (it was a very well made movie, but nothing’s special/new/surprising about it), and then decided to just dine out. We went to this Schezuan restaurant that serves the best “Diced Fried Chicken buried in Dried Chilli and Schezuan Peppers” dish. I didn’t take photo of it last night, but I still have the photo (and layout!) from a while ago that I took at the same restaurant. In case you are in Hong Kong, the restaurant is called “San Xi Lou”, and located on the 7th floor of the Coda Plaza, on Garden Road, just beside the YMCA Building in Central. They used to be located in Causeway Bay under the name “Man Jiang Hong”. I highly recommend it! We usually have the “Fried Rice with Onion and Fried Egg” (one bowl is enough for the two of us) and the “String Beans with Minced Pork” to accompany the Chicken Dish.

As seen in the book “Picture Yourself Creating Digital Scrapbooks” by Lorie J. Davies and Sally Beacham. Created using Year In Revue Kit. Fonts are FG Matilda, Tork and 1942 Report.

We were so full after dinner, and I wasn’t feeling like heading home yet – the night was still young. So we just strolled towards the city. It’s a nice walking weather – clear sky, and pretty cold – almost like winter! We talked about this and that while walking and somehow we got this idea to go to The Peak. The Peak is an area on the top of the Austin Mountain where you can see the magnificent view of Hong Kong from above – when the weather is nice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Peak, and here to see pictures). Last time we went there was in 2004 during daytime – to show Hong Kong around to my younger brother who was visiting us then. As the Tram station was not faraway when where we were strolling down last night, we just walked there and joined the queue – which consisted of mostly tourists from all over the world. We bought the tickets just to get there, not including tickets for the Peak Tower and Peak Terrace.

The tram trip is a pretty exciting experience. The view was gorgeous and the tram itself is an historical, 120 years old tram. When you’re sitting inside the traveling tram, the buildings on your left and right would seem to be leaving at a weird angle – sort of like having Pisa Tower all over you! This is because the tram route is on an steep path, scaling the mountain. When you’re sitting inside it, you’re actually sitting at 90º angle to the mountain path – thus the building outside seems like the ones that are leaning. But when you’re standing up, the buildings would appear upright at normal angle again. This is because when you’re standing up, your body would automatically try to stand up straight – perpendicular to the ground, not to the steep path – and so you would be leaning at the same angle as the buildings! Isn’t that peculiar!

Once we arrived, we’re greeted by a breathtaking view of Hong Kong skyline at night… I took some pics with my iPhone – but the results only look good at small size :). You’d better check the link here for photos that could do justice to the view :). After wandering around for sometimes enjoying the view from various angles, we had a cup of hot tea in one of the restaurants there (well, I had a pot of peppermint tea with honey and my husband had a glass of red wine). Then it’s finally time to head home…

It was a fun evening! Especially because it wasn’t planned :)

To our newest Z!Girl, Carin Van Kuijk from the Netherlands! I’m sure most of you have known her as CarinPixel in forums and galleries as she an active scrappers who always ready to comment and help others.

I would like you all to get to know her. She is one of my long time customers – a very good one too! And she scraps delightful and eclectic pages that I’m sure you would find inspiring. She has been a Z!Guest too when we used to have the spot regularly. I am so happy that she’s joining us here at Ztampfilicious Team! You can take a peek at her new Z!Gallery here, and also here at her oldie but goodie Z!Guest Album. And now… let’s start interviewing her so we’ll get to know her even better!

Q: Please tell us a bit about yourself!
Carin: I’m a 36 years old chocolate-holic mom, I’ve got 3 official teens in the house now, Jeroen my oldest is a musician in the making, Esmee my beloved DD is 14 and she’s the artist in the family, and Aranka just turned 10 last week and she’s the little house dragon. Every bad habbit of the oldest 2 are combined in her. When I was younger I loved to draw, make little fantasy dragons and such with Clay, making fantasy books with modgepodge, clay, paint and everything else I could get my hands on. After Aranka was born I struggled with my colons a lot, some hospital errors later they removed my gall bladder, but sadly it didn’t do much good. Until this day I struggle with colon problems and some days are better then others and that keeps me bound at home a lot of times.

Q: What is your mostest favorite thing to do?
Carin: Spending time with my children, my family, my husband and discovering the world little by little. When I was growing up, we didn’t go on vacations outside the Netherlands. The first time I ever set step outside our own country was with my husband. I remember spending a lot of time in the car to go to Spain, and usually I sleep inside the car. This time I didn’t sleep for a minute, the big sunflower fields, the castles, the amazing huge parking areas along the roads, the views and wow the mountains between France and Spain. I knew that minute I wanted to see the entire world!

Q: Any favorite food/drinks you can’t live without?
Carin: A yellow bag of M&M’s is a standard in my shopping cart, I can not go without them, need them, want them, crave them always. Next to that I can not go without a large latte machiatto at my favorite coffee shop Merz, I think I’m there at least 4 times a week!

Q: How about music/songs or books – what are you into these days?
Carin: Make a guess…okay that’s not fair, actually I’m a metal chick….I love Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Guns N roses, well not the new trashed metal like slipknot that’s too much for me I like them singing not grunting. I also love a little gothic like within temptation. As far as reading goes, my collection contains nothing but fantasy, Christopher Paolini, omg did he really write Eragon on such a young age? He can become HUGE! R Feist, Bernard Hennen, and offcourse Tolkien, oh those hobbitses and those hairy feet.

Q: What is your favorite subject to scrap about?
Carin: Well if you look at my gallery it says my own children and that is almost correct, however I love to scrap daily live, vacations and my project 365.
And uhm I have a secret never shown stash of… ‘toiletscrap’. I can see your wondering ‘toiletscraps’? well I allready said I have colon problems, and it basicly means whenever I have to go, I NEED to go and that brings me in quite a few toilets. Some are amazingly decorated others are very, very, very dirty. I remember an iron toilet in Barcelona and in Rome we had a kind of shuffling system that was very YUCKY. In Egypt at the Piramides I really needed to go and got a bucket of water with me to wash and flush. That toilet received a -10. I take pictures of those toilets and collect them and scrap about the toilets and give them a rate, 1 being bad, 10 being excellent. LOL.

Q: How did you first find out about digital scrapbooking? Did you paper-scrapbook before?
Carin: Well I think it was old style scrapping I did, saving receipts, tickets, brochures of places we visited and glued them in albums together with photos I cropped and chopped and torn apart. In 2006 somebody introduced me to digital scrapbooking and well that got me hooked!.

Q: What do you love most about digital scrapbooking?
Carin: Well it keeps my room tidy, no mess after scrapping AND there’s an undo button! Besides that when your done with a page and get it printed, inside an album or lose pages or whatever, you have a great memory to share and show others.

Q: Why do you want to be in a creative team? What do you love most about it? Any tips for being a good CTM?
Carin: Well off course if you’re on a creative team it saves you some money. But that is not my main reason; there are designers out there that I really love and adore, I love quality and uniqueness in a kit and I am truly fed up with all the CU items sold everywhere because it gives a lot of kits the same look. Since I do foremost make pages to record memories for my family and future ancestors, I only want to CT for a designer if I know the designs will fit my own needs as well. I think as a CTM your love for the designs itself is enough to make great pages for designers. And next to that I off course play the praise, take a look at ISO threads and enable when fitting. I know as a former Z!Guest that Ztampf! designs are 1 of a kind for sure, and I actually bought quite a lot and well being a Z!Girl has always been 1 of my ‘goals’. So now I can get that out of my 1001 things to do in my lifetime!

Q: How do you manage your time between being your own person, a mother, a wife, a scrapper and a Z!Girl – among tons of other things?
Carin: What other things? Do you really mean to tell me there’s more besides scrapping and family? Kidding off course, well I’m fortunate to still be able to be a SAHM and do volunteers work. I just make time to scrap in the morning hours when everyone is off to school and work. And in the evening, because basically TV only shows stupid stuff. I scrap at least 1 page per day, it is my therapy, my fix, my need. It keeps me a happy mom and wife, and my kids and DH all love a happy me.

Q: How/when did you first find out about Ztampf! – if you remember it? What first attracted you to Ztampf!?
Carin: November 2006 I started scrapping and my first home was SBB, I remember Fhung was selling there as well and I joined in a party chat and won a coupon for Ztampf!. I was in love right away – the rich colors, the unique elements and wonderful fasteners, it all just fitted my style right away!

Q: How/where did you learn digital scrapbooking? Best way/place to hone in your digi-skills?
Carin: Well it was at SBB where I started and learned to create pages, I love the tutorials they have there. I involved in challenges colors and templates, and to me that is a great way of exploring ideas, giving you other options to do things and so on.

Q: What program do you use to scrap with? Is there any certain scrapping tools that you found yourself using again and again?
Carin: I scrap in Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 and that it is.

Q: What is your ideal scrapping time/space would be? Any certain gadgets/programs you are coveting right now?
Carin: Hmmm the ideal space would be a room where no sound from outside could get in, no screaming kids, no TV noise, yeah that would be scrapheaven. And off course a nice printer that could do canvas and large paper sizes. And I really need to sort my photos, my EHD crashed and I have recovered almost all photos, but they are all renamed in lost file with loads of numbers. Sadly I lost most scrapping supplies. Also if a faerie could magically sort my photos again that would be amazing!

Q: What is the single most useful scrapping technique you found so far?
Carin: Extracting, blending and playing with layers, I love that!

Q: What do you love most about Ztampf! products?
Carin: Well I stated earlier that I love quality and uniqueness, and that counts for everything Ztampf! And off course I do have favorites. The sparkle spray overlays are so versatile and pretty.
I think I used them for over a year on almost every layout. And off course, what’s a page without a good stitched photo, and these truly are the best I ever found! And these wandering soul pendants and pins, I just adore them I would really love such a pendant in real live, they look so pretty.

I hope you enjoyed getting to know Carin – isn’t she fun! I’m also so looking forward to see more her ztampfilicious layouts!