The customs line. We spent a lot of time waiting in customs lines. You can see and understand everything from this photo. This is entry into HK at the airport.

Once past all this, we rode on buses, taxis and the subway. Here are scenes from around the city.

Hey, did you notice? They have construction everywhere there too!

Because they’re always building giant buildings like this.

And when you’re inside giant buildings like this you can see scenes like this.

Sort of framed in the middle of that window is the Star Ferry on Victoria Harbour. We didn’t ride on the Ferry this trip, but we have before. It transports folks from one side of HK to another.

Here is one of the many container shipping yards. Maybe some of our ATB products are sitting in a container out there now waiting to be shipped.

Would it surprise you to know that Guinevere and I know how to move around in HK better than New York City? Here are some images from the subway. It’s called the MTR in Hong Kong. Mind the gap!

There is Guinevere, notice she is pulling a gorgeous ATB Square Rolling Bag!

Don’t forget to keep checking back. I have many more photos of the trip to share in days to come!

We sure love our pets at ATB. You can see photos of them in our layouts and projects as a constant. Here’s a recent layout I did for Kristen of her adorable pup. One of my favorite techniques for scrapbooking is mix-and-match collage. I like to coordinate embellishments and use lots of them, layering as I work. These fun elements create a loose frame and direct your eye to the photo.

The products I used in this design are:
Puppy Love Patterned Paper
Always in our Hearts Patterned Paper
Pet Ponderings Patterned Paper
Red Cardstock
White Cardstock
The Tape Writer + Black Tape
The Paper Tagger + Brown Tagger Tails
Ransom Alphabet Brads
Boy Microdots
Little Critters Soft Charms
Dingbats & Numbers Embroidered Elements
Wrought Iron Frame Tape
Love Punch + Emboss
Black Antiquing Tool
Love Painted Metal Charms
Ultimate Tag Kit #2
Hearts & Arrows Big Metal Brad
Brown Felt Tip Marker
Sewing Machine + Black & White Thread
Red & White Ribbon scrap
Therm O Web XL Adhesive Runner

Johanna created this super cute keychain for her new car using just a few pretty ATB embellishments and packaging from our Brads In A Bag product. We just love this super creative idea!!!

Here’s how she did it:
1. Use the keychain from a package of Brads In a Bag, 2 brads, 2 identical Fabric Tags, 2 Painted Metal Charms and two 3/8″ eyelets.

2. Place on 2 flower brads - 1 to each tag. Set eyelets in each tag in the same location. Then glue the Fabric Tags together back to back using fabric glue.

3. Add two charms to the chain using needle nose pliers and attach keyring to Fabric Tags.

Johanna is another one of our talented project designers at ATB.

She says, “Here is the layout I made, I used the glitter on the “me” and I used the flocking for the large bracket and the music notes on the “J”. I used the Paper Tagger tool to attach the chipboard J. I used the Antiquing Tool to add color to the flower Frame Tape border (to make it pink instead of white) and the edges of one of the quotes, and I sanded the edges of the quotes with the sanding disk end of the Antiquing Tool.

Here are some photos of the glitter on the letters ‘me’. The brown ATB sticker letters didn’t really work for this layout and I also wanted some thing a bit more sparkly. The pink glitter really ties in with the layout.

I used the Flocking & Glitter Kit, first, I added glue to the brown letters.

Second I sprinkled glitter on the glue. Third I shook off the excess glitter into the Speckle Saver and then put the unused glitter back in the bottle. Now I have pink glitter letters for ‘me.’”

Check out how Johanna uses the Tape Writer to journal in this layout. She mixes up the colors of the Refill Tapes and the Fonts. It’s easy to change Font Wheels on the Tape Writer, all you have to do is push a button, remove a pin and insert the wheel. There are 8 fonts available and over 20 different Refill Tapes to choose from!

Whenever we travel to the Orient, I get so many questions about the food. It is much different from what we’re used to in the U.S. and Taipei’s food choices did not disappoint.

Here are some photos from our breakfast buffet.

What is the cook thinking? Corn and fish jello!!! Eeeks! And is that meat jello? I think I’m going to faint. No, we didn’t partake - in case you were wondering.

The bread looks beautiful and scrumptious, right? Oh boy, looks can be deceiving. The one on the upper right gave me a gurgly stomach for 2 days just on whiff alone. I’m so glad I smelled it first…

This fruit I learned the name of and immediately forgot. I do remember the name had 3 syllables. We tried it, it tastes kind of like leaves, sweet leaves. And the seeds kind of pop when you bite down on them with your teeth.

We went in this store in the airport. Wow, the food offerings were diverse. The packaging design was very cool. It had a vintage-retro 80’s design flair. Here’s a sampling.

What would you like to buy? Perhaps a yummy box of dried Shark Fin Soup? It shouldn’t be too difficult to reconstitute, no? Mmmmmm….

These must be some kind of sweets.

Delicious. I’m guessing. Is it just me, or does everything seem to be orange and yellow?

Maybe these wouldn’t be so bad?

Look, a whole meal in a box. Just like an MRE. Yum! It must be good, it looks like it won some kind of award.

They just don’t make stuff like this around here.

Here are the first of a series of the photos I took while traveling in the Orient with Guinevere. Watch for more posts with photos to come over the next week.

We have never visited Taiwan before, but we have a few factories there, so it was time for a trip. Also, there was a good fair there that we wanted to go to.

This is the airport. Not too much different from U.S. airports. The security is not as strict and they let you use those little luggage carts for free! As soon as we got our bags, we headed out to catch a taxi to the fair.

Below are 3 of the 6 men that surrounded me. They were trying to get the address for where we wanted to go. They couldn’t understand or speak any English. So they all groaned a little when they saw our itinerary and couldn’t read it. They finally ended up calling someone who spoke English and could translate. They really were helpful, you’d never find this kind of service in the U.S.! About 30 minutes later, we arrived at the fair.

This is a view from above of the show floor. Also, some vendors we met.

These are some vending machines at the fair. I bought a lemon soda - it was $30 dollars - Taiwan dollars. The exchange rate is 30:1 USD. I love the graphics!

Taiwan is very tropical - and hot. The temps were in the 80’s and very humid. This is a view from our hotel window.

And this…

And some street views… (They were taken from a moving cab, sorry they’re a tad blurry and crooked too!)

The building in the background is called One Hundred & One. One of our factory contacts told us that there are not actually 101 floors in it, but they call it that anyway.

A view of the Taipei airport terminal. Not one blonde in the whole joint!

Here is a photo of our airplane. It was huge! 2 Storys high!

And even though it was only a 1.25 hour flight to Hong Kong, they fed us a full meal. We didn’t go for it much. Mystery meat and not so tasty veggies - oh they were interesting alright! Yup, you guessed right, that’s a brine-soaked egg in the lower right. I know what you’re thinking.

Guinevere and I are in Hong Kong this week! We are visiting our factories and meeting with our contacts in China. This is a view from our Hotel - Guinevere took it with her phone. We stayed in a new area called Tuen Mun - Gorgeous! We’ll have some more photos from the trip when we return home.

Here are some fun layouts by Tina Freeman (talented ATB designer!) using some new products.

Her designs showcase:
• 3D Scrapbooking Kits (These products work with and without 3D glasses - 2 pairs are included in the kits along with a dozen sheets of paper and 3 big sticker sheets!)
• The Travel Embellishment Super Pack - Chipboard Tags
• Ultimate Chipboard Tag Kit #3 - Occasions,
• Embroidered Elements - Celebrate Alphabet
• Big Metal Brads- 4 Seasons

Our new products are expected to be in your favorite scrapbooking store sometime in May. To see a preview of more products - have a lookie here.

Flocking is a wonderful and easy technique that can be used on all scrap pages and other paper craft projects. The ATB glue stickers allow you to make beautiful designs on your paper projects.

For the above card I used:
• ATB Glue Stickers
• ATB Flocking
• ATB Patterned Papers - Happy Day and Running Horses
I also used some white & pink cardstock, a circle punch and adhesive.

By punching circles on out of the Happy Day paper you can play around with circles and the “outside pieces” that are left. By combining different colour this way you can get a more interesting design.

After I placed the circle punch “best friends” inside the brown scallop, I mounted it on the dark running horses paper. I also mounted the pink cardstock on the running horses. To finish the card I placed a glue sticker on the right and then used some white flocking powder. It has a wonderful soft “feel” and makes the card look special.

Have fun!
Annette

Scrappy (below), ATB’s happy mascot, invited all of his canine (and one feline) friends over for a visit and a lunch at ATB.

Scrappy quotes one writer, ”Having dogs in the workplace has been shown to reduce stress and improve employee morale. Employees are more willing to work longer hours.” You can read more about this phenomenon here and here. Scrappy, a Golden Retriever, belongs to Jennifer.

Facts from the American Humane Association:
Staff morale and worker productivity increased by bringing pets to work.

Increased camaraderie among employees.

Happier employees result in enhanced job performance.

Increase in sales reported by store owners who take their dogs to work.

Dogs can serve as a crime deterrent. OK, maybe not our pack of sweet tiny dogs, but hey, Scrappy is big - oh, and the little ones can really bark loud.

“There’s something about pets that really brings people together” says Carol Moulton, Director, American Humane Society.

Hey there Mr. M, got any good snacks for me?

Even Butters (above) was invited. Scrappy doesn’t discriminate. Sherry is Butter’s human. Butters felt honored to be the only feline present.

This is Gibson, one of Guinevere’s dogs - Yorkshire Terrier. Guinevere’s other pup, Kira, is the white Maltese Terrier (below). Kira is getting up in her years, probably our oldest visiting friend. How does she maintain that youthful look? And great hair bows too!

Katie Bell - Braylee’s super cute Pomeranian. Be still my heart.

Sadie, Kristen’s spunky and sweet Yorkshire Terrier. She’s only 6 months old. That face! Awwwwwwww.

Bella, (above) is Cheri and Robert’s Lhasa apso/Poodle mix. She is the sister of Toby (below), who belongs to Trent. Super friendly and cuddly sweet dogs. These two have the softest fur ever! (You know, like that super silky fleece fabric? Yep.) Don’t you love Toby’s chocolate color? You could just eat him up, but he probably doesn’t taste much like chocolate, and he’s hairy too. Ok, bad idea.

Are you tired of cute doggie photos? We didn’t think so. Ok, here’s more.

Is Scrappy smiling in this photo? Yep, we checked, he is. He sure does love Kristen. That’s Matt, Kristen’s fiance. He’s a dog lover too. At least we’re 99% sure he is. You can tell by the expression on his face.

Thanks for the scratches Steve. You know Scrappy loves scratches. Oh man, you’re my best bud. I sure do like you Steve. When you’re done with my back, can I get a belly rub too?