Surprise Birthday Gift For WQ

Before I go on about our celebration day at Straits Quay, let's reverse back a bit and talk about what we've planned for a little more than a week. :P And when I say "we", I mean four of us: me, JM, YP and JY.

I started the idea first, because I had the idea of making a photo scrapbook for myself before. And lucky me, I saw somewhere that there is a DIY photo album for sale at a reasonable price. (Not revealing prices here, interested about the prices email me). It was quite pretty, actually, with an Eiffel Tower in front and the French words "Paris-Je t'aime", which translated to English means I Love You.

Original cover decorated by us.

It's quite a pretty album actually. It's not as posh or as sleek as other albums, especially the ones from professional studios or wedding albums, which can cost thousands. But it has its own character, and although the design is really simple, it is charming in its own way. I like it a lot. <3.

At first the shop only has dark grey, which is TOO dark to see the design properly, but afterward I asked again and the salesperson told me that they just restocked it today. Awesome. So after consulting with JY, I chose the light grey one over red, after we both agreed that light grey is more WQ. More like her personality, that is.

JM has the job of searching and buying some scrapbook materials because she went QB twice in two days consecutively. LOL right? The first time she went, she took photos of the materials that she saw, came home, discussed with me, and that she purchased them the next day. Here are the stuff:

I also took the job of editing the photos...which took a HELL lot of time. Why? Because it's hard to find nice photos of us together, seriously difficult to find JY with us and  impossible to find us all 5 together. As JY only joined us only a few months ago, there aren't many photos that include her. So this is a really, really time-consuming mission. >.<

What's more, after choosing 15 photos, I realized that 15 pages did not include both sides, so I had to go find photos until 28 pieces. Zzz. And edit them. Editing is the fun part honestly, but what with the deadline being 24hours and everything, it is really nerve-wracking. Z. Then some of the photos have much too low resolution to be able to print in even 4R. So I had to change them. THEN, the salesperson from the online printing company we chose (because printing online is cheaper and easier) told me that
1, They have a schedule, and they will put my order on schedule when paid, but he's not sure how many orders are on that schedule at the moment.
2, They use Kangaroo courier, which has a bad reputation for being late until about 1week, and if need Poslaju, which is better, we are additionally charged.
3, Payment time+Printing time+Courier time= 7 to 10days.

Wtf. We can barely spare two days, let alone 10. So tried asking around local photo studios with friend's help if they can print on matte paper. Why matte? Because normal photos are printed on glossy paper, which is the shiny kind that reflects light and when it's freshly printed and then touched, it feels sticky and will catch fingerprints. And as we're going to touch the photos a lot, it isn't a good idea to choose glossy paper.
Matte is the textured kind of paper that doesn't feel so smooth, but a bit grainy-like. Its colours aren't as rich and vibrant, but it resists fingerprints and doesn't reflect too much light. So it's better for scrapbooks and for portraying in naked state (meaning without plastic film or glass covering it)

Thank God my dear old reliable photo studio (near my old house) prints matte photos in 4R. <3 them sooo much. Photos printed, light grey album gotten, scrapbook decorations bought! Now, we can start work!! :D
Got the photos on Friday morning and started work in the afternoon. JY couldn't come as she was working. We put all the photos into place and decorated the cover and first few pages. That was all we did. Progress was very slow. I wondered if we could finish on time.

Resumed working on Sunday afternoon after I came back from Kedah. YP and JY came first, then later JM. We had a fun time, especially after JM brought her stencils. LOL. Without them I think we would never have finished decorating. JY went back early, so in the end YP and JM rushed the work with me. At first we had loads of ideas, but after a while our creativity started to flop. By the last five or six pages (we skipped pages while doing), the ideas ran out. So we had no choice but to decorate as fast and simple yet acceptable as we can. LOL.

Before

After >.<

=.= JY accidentally put the glue applier directly into a cup full of mini blings.

Doing the work~

Here are the photos of every page.
Love it! =D

Package

Bag

Front cover

Our messages~

Before photos start.

All are kinda blur, but still they show the decorations we did.
Finished by 7.30pm. Finally. They went home and I cleared the mess. Finally! Tomorrow giving WQ the present! Stay tuned.