Designer Day: Come Meet Leena Loh!

Today we bring you a talented designer all the way from Singapore!

Leena Loh joined our design team just this year and is a super talented lady! She lives in the beautiful, tropical country of Singapore along with her husband, Rainer, and son, Ethan.

Hello, everyone! This is Leena here all the way from Singapore! Some of you may or may not have heard of this little country that I’m residing now (this island is so tiny no one can ever find it in the world map! lol!) and it’s also been called the little “red dot” somewhere in the South East Asia. Well, if you’ve ever heard of our famous national carrier Singapore Airline with their famous icon, the “Singapore Girl”, that’s us!

(Map courtesy of Google images.)

Anyway, I have to say Singapore is a beautiful country. I couldn’t have chosen a better place to live in. Even though this country is a fast-paced city to live in, it’s also one of the safest and most peaceful countries in the world. It’s clean, people are very friendly, and we have multi-racial citizens with rich cultural backgrounds.

Here’s a photo of Singapore city which I took a couple of months back during our Independence Day.

So, a little background about me now. I was originally born in Malaysia and I came to Singapore 15 years ago when I became one of the “Singapore Girls”. For five and a half years I traveled around the world, enjoying every moment of my youth experiencing diverse cultures and visited some of the most amazing cities in the world. I have to say some of my favorite places I’ve visited will be: England, Egypt, Nepal, Australia, Japan, France and, of course, the United States.

And then I got settled down and married my best friend, Rainer, whom I’ve met while I was flying. Together, we had a beautiful boy, Ethan who is now 6 and full of life! Our lives definitely have never been the same after he arrived...it got better, in fact, and we completely love being parents. Seeing him grown into a fine young boy certainly is worth every second. As you can see from the pictures of my family, I’m a happy woman.

How I came upon scrapbooking was by chance 3 years ago. I got knocked out of breath when I stepped into our local scrapbooking store and I’ve been crazy about this craft ever since. Over the years, I’ve had great opportunities designing for some wonderful manufacturers, kit clubs and my lss and that includes Prima Marketing. I couldn’t be more thankful to be in the Prima team, surrounded by many talented and wonderful girls.

I’m a full-time working mother and I do travel every now and then. When things get busy at work and I’m worn out, scrapbooking is an outlet where I relieved myself from all the stress. I have to say it’s an effective therapy that works wonders! Besides getting into scrapbooking, I’m an avid photography fan. I picked up my first film SLR back in the mid 90s when I got my first big pay check and I never stopped snapping pictures ever since. I have thousands of pictures taken over the years when I traveled around the globe and I’m still keeping all the negatives I took them in during the film camera era. And when digital cameras started getting popular years back, I was really hesitant to switch to digital SLR. I guess I was afraid that I would become too dependant on digital settings I would lose my insight on the skill I’ve build when I was taking pictures in film. But I got settled in really quickly and I love my DSLR very much now. I still do miss my old film SLR, which I’ve now kept it safe as a reminder how I got started in photography.

So, I made full use of my camera and took loads of pictures which have been used all the time in my scrapbooking projects. I love that I can document my photos and drown them with all the beautiful products that can be offered in the market.

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I’d like to share a few of my projects with some of my favorite gorgeous products that Prima offers.

My first project is a shadow box which I got from Ikea. I decided to alter it into a display piece for my home with some amazing fall color Prima products.

The highlight of this shadow box that I altered would be the Felt Gates, which I love so much! I decided to cut it into 4 pieces and encircled them around the inner square where I adhered the words “Home Sweet Home”. It added a lovely touch to the box together with the other gorgeous flowers and leaves.

841713 ~ Paislee Road Paper - Assam
841782 ~ Annalee Paper - Avondale
841805 ~ Annalee Paper - Parlor
542191 ~ Felt Gates
540111 ~ Madrigal Blossom Peach Harmony
543792 ~ Orchard Mix Sunglow
543808 ~ Orchard Mix Sahara
541163 ~ SIIC Swirl with Fimo Brown
539672 ~ Autumn Leaves September
537401 ~ Alphabet Stickers
537432 ~ Alphabet Stickers
300562 ~ E Line Pearls & Crystals

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Another project that I made is a wood mounted canvas board that I’m planning to give it to my best friend Ally as a gift. I took this photo of her in her 7th month pregnancy together with her hubby. First, I painted, distressed and misted the canvas. I then cut out some flower motifs from another favorite product of mine, the Donna Downey Canvas sheet together with the doily motifs which is part of the packaging design. I also adhered a Felt Gate on the DD canvas sheet and used it to mat the photo. I completed the canvas board with more lovely flowers in shades of purple, blue and pink, SIIC and more DD Canvas sheet (bird cage design). This would be my first purple theme project that I’ve ever created and I love it very much!

Try making your own canvas layout! You can find a framed canvas at most art supply stores! Add Glimmer Mist and Claudine Hellmuth paints for a custom color combination.

920739 ~ Donna Downey Screenprinted Canvas
920722 ~ Donna Downey Screenprinted Canvas
920746 ~ Donna Downey Screenprinted Canvas
542214 ~ Felt Gates
542641 ~ Petunia Opus
542603 ~ Sweet Taffy Lavender
543839 ~ Butterfly - Papillon
540531 ~ Vintage SIIC - 4x6
538415 ~ Pearl Penache Heather
533168 ~ Trellis Roses Purple Mist
537623 ~ Melange Blue Violet
537586 ~ Melange Lagoon
541774 ~ Alphabets - Road Trip

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My last piece of work would be a page titled “Me & My Favorite Chair” which I created using So Cute collection. I love how versatile the collection is as they can be used for either girl or boy projects. The papers are printed on both sides, with girls and boys theme and the embellishments that came with it are absolutely adorable! I decided to scrap the photos of my best friend’s little girl, Rylie which I took when I visited her a while back. I love how Rylie’s little pink top (a gift from me) matches the color palette of the So Cute papers. Complimented with some lovely pink based flowers, I love how pretty this page turned out. It’s a very girlie page indeed.

A few sparkly flowers and leaves are added effortlessly by using a ready-to-use Prima vine.

A bold title pulls the whole layout together and adds a burst of color!

841591 - So Cute paper - Noteworthy
841560 - So Cute paper - Hide and Seek
543907 - The Roosevelt Col Carow
543587 - Jack & Jill Essentials 9
539658 - Tres Jolie Citrus
537760 - Athena Flowers Skylight
541774 - Alphabet Stickers

I hope you’ve got to know me a little better and thank you again for visiting this blog again. Have a great week ahead! ~~Leena

We hope you have enjoyed our day with Leena! If you would like to see more of her work just hop on over to her blog!

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