Day: November 30, 2010

Behind the Scenes: “Rejoice”

Published by Sula H.

Admitted: yesterday I promised that today I would tell you about what I recently did using all my Christmas kits, but at the time I didn’t realize that I actually confused the order of posts. So, instead I will take you “Behind the Scenes” again today and I hope you don’t mind waiting until tomorrow to find out more about my Christmas goodies! Let’s take a look at “Rejoice” today: Here’s what I did … The challenge for this layout actually was to use two digi-scrap kits and combine them (a challenge posted by Kristin Cronin-Barrow in the SSD thread for International Scrapbook Day). I used a template by Cindy Schneider (SSD), and took two kits, “Serenity” by Zoe Pearn and “Naturally You” by KCB to work with. Using a template of any kind always helps a lot, though I really like to make them my “own”! I do that by adding a few extra embellishments, changing the order of layers, etc. For this page in particular, I added a few scatters (one to the …

Places to Go: Kaifeng (Iron Pagoda)

Published by Sula H.

Kaifeng is not only famous for having once been the capital of China during its long history, it is also well-known for one of its cultural relics – the Iron Pagoda (or Iron Tower as it is usually referred to by locals). A name which – ironically – is quite misleading, as its structure has nothing to do with iron at all. Built in 1049, the Iron Pagoda is actually made from glazed bricks, which give it the appearance of iron, thus its nick name. 13 stories tall with a height of 55.63 meters and 168 steps leading to the top, the Iron Pagoda is richly decorated with ancient ornaments depicting flowers, figures of people and creatures. So far, it has survived over 40 earthquakes, 20 hail storms and was flooded by the nearby Yellow River six times. Nicely situated in a rather large and pretty well-kept garden, the Iron Tower should be on the list of sights to see for everyone visiting Kaifeng.