Using just a few ATB products, you can make super cute, quick cards for any occasion.

In these cards I used ATB’s Living Life Patterned Papers, Edgy Tape Writer Strips, the Brown Antiquing Tool and Hearts & Arrows Big Metal Brads.

1. Decide which background paper you’d like to use and cut it to 4.25″ x 8.5″. Fold in half.
2. Trim out a few different sized strips of coordinating patterned paper and choose a quote from the quote sheet. Ink all edges with the Antiquing Tool.
3. Attach paper strips and self-adhesive Edgy Tape Writer Strip to card back, layering pieces as you go - the quote will be the top layer.
4. Attach Heart or Arrow Big Metal Brad. Card will fit in standard A2/Baronial sized envelope.

This is the last post of photos from our trip.

On the last day of our trip we were able to go to the street market late in the afternoon. This market is so much fun, good shopping and lots to see. The market is just up the street and around the corner. This is where the taxi left us.

Looking into the market. There are hundreds of booths.

This booth specialized in jeans. We chatted with this gal for a while. Her name is Lang Lang.

This market is sensory overload. There is so much to see and the vendors all try to catch your attention. So much fun!

There is food everywhere too - and it’s not boring!

Anyone for a pig snout?

This looks a little better.

But I’m not so sure about this. What in the world?
And yes, that yellow stuff was really that bright. I’m not sure what it was, but I think those roundish brown things are eggs?

Then it started to get dark out.
And the food took a turn for the worst.
See for yourself.

Yes, those huge shrimps were alive - and moving around.

(Breathe deep) Just be glad you weren’t there in person to see them in full live action.

Look away.
Look back at the vendors in the non-food booths.
Take a rest from those pictures above.

You can pick your own and they’ll cook it for you right there.

See all that steam on the glass? Hong Kong is very steamy and hot.
And full of smells and sounds unlike anywhere I’ve seen!

There are places for you to sit down and enjoy your delicious food.

And one final parting view of the city at night…until we meet again Hong Kong!

On our trip to the Orient, we went into China for only one day. We took a bus across the border. We haven’t done this yet by bus. In the past it’s always been by plane, train or ferry. Notice all of the dark heads on the bus - except for one bald guy and Guinevere’s red highlighted hair!

And then there was this guy.

Sun, our factory owner friend who was sitting beside me on the bus, suggested I take a picture of him. I said “Why not?” I forgot to get his email address to send him a copy (the sleeping guy’s, not Sun).

Once across the border and through customs, we waited here for our driver…and took some photos.

We were going to Sun & Kay’s factory in Guangzhou where they make our Soft Tags and Soft Charm products.

These two are a lot of fun to work with! We enjoy their company very much.

It was a little over a two hour car ride to the factory. We took a tour and met with Sun and Kay for a bit, then headed back.

Sun & Kay used to work at another factory, then branched off on their own. We plan to work with them on many new ATB products.

When back in Hong Kong, Sun and Kay treated us to a delicious Chinese dinner. (Thanks you guys!!) What a fun day!

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.