Keepsake and Japanese Doll ATCs and A Great Sing-Along Event

Whenever I received mails, expecially from exchanges, I would try to keep everything, the cards that came along naturally, and even the envelopes. Since I started creating ATCs, I look through what I have and couldn't resist using the envelopes and cards to create the first 9 keepsake ATCs. Do you recognise your mail?

I love Japanese stuff - Japanese food (especially sushi and sashimi), Japanese handicrafts, and these Japanese paper dolls. These dolls are very popular during my school days and I did a number of them then (around 1992 to be precise). I found these in pretty good condition in an album and re-mounted them on to ATC-size cards and tried my hand at stamping again. All the backgrounds were created with rubber stamps and coloured with chalks.

It was a first time for me and my boy to attend a Sing-along event yesterday and sure a big one too, attended by 12,000 people, from very young children to old aunties and uncles. The songs were a good mix from evergreen classics to local xinyao, and from the 1970s oldies to new favourites on the pop chart. Mainly Chinese songs, but there were a few English, Hokkien and Canto pops too. Lyrics were printed on complimentary booklets and also flashed on 2 big screens for all to follow and sing along. A lot of us, including myself, brought along honey water to nourish the throats so that we could sing for the 3 and a half hours long. It was a great time reminiscing and singing old songs I have sang during my student days by the breeze from the sea at the Marina Bay.