Card-marking Achievement in 2014

Have not been posting much on this blog. That doesn't mean I did not make any cards or crafts for the year. Have created a few baby albums for friends, different type of crafts. Am finding it difficult to post on blogspot as I find it a hassle to forward the pictures from the phone and download it from laptop to post on blogspot. Am contemplating to use Dayre but seems like non of my friends have been using it.


Anyway, just want to share this on blogspot. Honestly, I don't feel good about winning as I am the only participant of the challenge. For some weird really, no one else took up the challenge for the week! There have been many participants for the other weekly challenge.  To me it's a little achievement as I had tried something which I have never tried before --- painting on cards, using dimensional paint.

1) I used my new Sizzix honeycomb die for the first time.

2) Somehow I wanted a very dark theme card, with a hint of purple. So I chose a black Prima Optimist paper over a  purple cardstock. Used Art Anthology dimensional paint in Trolley Grey and paint over Tim Holtz stencil (latticework).
Paste the Honeycomb die on the side and a Prima resin frame on the other side.
Wanted to add a flower accent , but felt my flower is too "cheery". So I pasted a black leaf first.

 3) As for the flower, I managed to find a black lace from my stash and attempted to make a black lace rosette. Think it looked ok and then sew the flower to it. In order to make it look "grungy", i painted some dimensional paint over it.

4) So here's the finished product.

Valentine's Day Cards

For the first time this year, I put up a mini sale of my handmade Valentine's Day cards on Facebook and had sold 3 of them. Had made 10 cards initially and did another one at a request of a friend's friend.    The printed papers were mostly redeemed using my membership points and I din make a lost out of them, as I had originally wanted to get the printed papers to make a V-day album for my bf.

I simply love Bo Bunny's Love Letter  papers. Hence you can most of my cards are creating using papers from that line.

Here are the cards that were sold.

1)  Feb 14 Heart

This is my favourite and seems like it is the most popular design. For this is the first card that was sold. I also had someone message me privately that he keow this card was sold but he offered to pay a higher price for this,  Cos he knew his gf will sure love this card. Its is not that ethical, I have to say, but you can't blame a guy for fighting to get what he think his gf would like to have. Well , my response to him was that I am sorry that the card was sold and I offered to do up another similar design for him which is shown below. 

On a site note; I couldn't help wondering if my bf will do the same thing is he know what I wanted was unavailable. 

2) The "sister" card

Well,not 100% similar but basically, I have include "14",  "February", crystals, and a heart shaped embellishment.  The buyer was  nice to drop me a message after V-day, thanking me and  saying that his gf love the card. I am glad she did and glad to have helped too.

3) "Oh How I love you!" card

I actually bought the stickers some years back.  Never had a chance to use it until now. Somehow I have a feeling that the person who buys it must have been cycling with his/her partner and true enough!. 

4) You are my Favorite card

Well, this was not really sold but considered it as "give away". My sister has been sponsoring me a few clothings from her blogshop (www.sashpetals.com) so that I can help promoting the clothes in person.Hence, I asked her to pick one  for her to give to her husband (my bro-in-law). Hmm wonder why she pick this though.

As for the cards that are not sold. I can still keep them as the materials are acid free. I had joked to bf that I can give him one card  every year for the next coming V-days.

Feel free to drop me a note if anyone of you is interested to get  a V-Day card or handmade card. :)

My 2012

I seldom get too personal when it come to blogging now  (well , on this blog I mean, not the one I have abandoned years ago). However after seeing  Cruz Teng’s  blog post, I am inspired to do one too, so that years later, when I revisited this post, at least I will have some recollections on what happened in 2012, be it in term of current affairs and personal affairs. Haha.

Warning:  This post is gonna be lengthy and full of grammatical errors, and is written in a mixture of English and Chinese.

What I remembered for 2012:

·         The duke and duchess of Cambridge came to Singapore. Think Queenstown, Gardens by the Bay, Raoul dress and speculated baby bump.

·         Obama‘s tweet  “ Four more years” was quoted by many.

·         In Aug, there was the biggest rumour in Singapore. I had friends, family who told me and the speculations that “ 老李” had passed away and the whole government is keeping this a secret as National Day was approached. Despite showing my parents about another pic which was sent through Whatsapp on a healthy looking  ex-Ministor Mentor  walking unaided out of SGH, they rather believe the rumours that was going around in coffee shops  (all over Singapore I presume). 

·         More people are interested to watch the NDP this year, specially the “segment” where all the members of parliament were invited to their seats.  From the cheers that were heard, and the sentiments echoed in social media platform , I guessed  he is still loved by many. At Four more years too?

·         It’s been a year of lusting husbands and lasting wives, be in for Singapore or overseas. Singapore, that is considered to be conservative, was rocked by a wave of sex scandals.  Haiz.

·         Diva Whitney Houston, Feng Feifei said goodbye.  I realized that I can actually sing-along more to the songs by Feng Feifei than Whitney Houston. Blame my parents for listening to her songs when I was young. LOL.

·         Superheros ruled the cinema screens – Avengers, Superman, Batman.  I was causing a lot of “distress “to my colleagues and friends around me by asking them a  欠扁问答题  that goes “ Why super heros’ costumes are so tight fitting? “.
Ans  :  因为救人要紧

One said I hit a new low with this cold joke…..  *Crows flying*

·         21 Dec 2012 was deemed to be last day on earth..  Crap…..I know I will be still alive commenting about this.

·         If you think Macarena dance craze last decade was bad,  Psy proved that he can outdo it with his Gangnam Style  house-galloping moves.


2012 to me on a personal level:

• - started off the year at countdown event in Taipei, watching fireworks  firing from Taipei 101
• -started a new blog ( this blog) on 21 Feb , mainly to share more abt my art creations.  Sort of give it up in May as I could not catch up with the number of creations I have came up with.
• - made more than 20  Name signages, created 3 mini albums , 2 frame projects ,1 layout  and more than 100 cards for friends.
• - missed 大师兄 performance but managed to see him in person.Was so touched by his actions when I was in a stoned mode due to lack of sleep.

「步步惊心」里的众爷们， 你喜欢那一位？

• -- I seldom watched drama serials online but after seeing the trailer of 「步步惊心」in Taiwan , I was so hooked on it that I completed watching the whole serial 2 weeks before it end its run in Singapore . For some episodes, I watched twice.
• 很多朋友也迷上「步步惊心」。我常开玩笑，说我的另一伴要像四爷那么man, 那么大方（就像他不计较若曦跟其他哥儿门在一起）。最喜欢四爷会说实话。

• Draw Something became the popular app in the earlier part of 2012, though it's popularity decline soon after it was bought over . 爱搞怪的我，尽量找机会把「步步惊心」的人物画进去。
• - also caught a bit of the drama serial 「犀利人妻」。谢安真的那句＂不要怕！＂留下了深刻的印象。

• -- movies I have watched in 2012 included Men in Black III, The Lucky One , Dark Knight Rises, 犀利人妻 and Les Miserables.
• - checked out new cafes like Full House, Kith cafe, Nana's Green Tea.
• -- held my first ever birthday party in McDonalds. The service there sucks but my friends are so sporty to came in school uniform.  那个月苦练的手语歌，「爱」，如今我都忘记好多手语动作。
• -- sported bangs for a while . The last time I was in bangs was more than 15 years ago?
• -- as what the tarot card reader predicted, I will change job before my birthday . Had never made so many trips to hotels ( for training ) prior to the current job. Had 4 meals at Sheraton,1 at Marriot and one at hotel intercontinental  for the last 3 months in 2012.

D&D --Hawaii Nite

• --  Attended  the new company's D&D,  My attempt to keep a low profile at the company D&D failed . Was practically up on the stage every 30mins. My first experience in giving out prizes at a formal event cos there is only one HR exec . Ha!
• -- organised a team building event  for the company. 
• -- had my first taste of the original Singapore Sling.
• -- caught the Harry Porter exhibition at Art & Science Museum. Disappointing . Heng I dun need to pay a single cent as it was the prev company's family day event.

me trying to take artistic shots at Gardens by the Bay

• visited Gardens by the Bay . Perhaps visiting it on 中秋节makes it more special too.
• tried out ice skating again at the new Jcube mall .
• attended 2 weddings ( gor's and KL's) and a ROM (siping's) in the year of dragon 
•  find it funny that the post on my relationship status has the most "like " , compare to my other personal posts on Facebook . 
•    said goodbye to my PO Box of 11 years.
• songs that I like includes: 会过去的，三寸天堂， 花又开好了， 不具名的悲伤，失恋事小，明明就。

• Received my 20th polar bear plushy--Chalky
• Ended 2012 watching fireworks at Marina Bay.

So that's my 2012, what about yours?

Christmas Cards 2012

Ok, I know I have neglected this blog. Haha couldn't really keep it up at times.

Not that I have been lazy in creating cards and craft work last year.

In fact, I have created more than 10 name signages for ex-colleagues as farewell gifts and more than 100 Christmas cards for sale and give-away. Well, a far cry from the 300+ Christmas cards I did in 2011 but I guess in terms of techniques, I did my best to try out doing new cards using new techniques.

Here are some of the few Christmas cards that I have done which I like.





I like the glossy reindeer die-cut. Peek-a- boo effect was decided when I layout the papers.

This pastel scheme card is one where a lot of friends wanted. Ironically, I did it when I was in a bad mood --feeling blue.



I reminded myself that I need to make use of my Sizzix die-cut machine.  Hence took the risk to cout out a scallop shaped from the front of the card.



Haha this card has special meaning to me. It is specially customised for M4 who like blue.

One of the new techniques I applied-- did a few "step-up" cards such as this.

Love this as you hardly see a purple themed Christmas cards. Coincidentally, the Christmas light-ups at Orchard Road also had a Nutcracker theme.

This is simplier than i thought-- rocking cards. It really rocks -- like a rocking chair.

Ok, thats all for the day.

Mini Accordion Album for Liying

Another  "ortang" post..

Create a  mini accordion album for Liying as her birthday giving, using a similar template that I learnt from  Papermarket for YSL's birthday gift.
Of cos, as this album is for Liying, I can use lots of floral and girly embellishments for her album.
Keep it rather simple and stick too natural colours and it will be more suitable for Liying, who in my eye , is not a very fussy and down to earth person.
 So here are the pictures of my final creation.

I wish  I could find more pictures of us taken in the past as our group knew each other for more than 13 years.  It was only as I went to dig out the soft copies of the pics that I realized that the pics I used to upload in "Friendster"(well...nobody use them for the past few years) are all gone as I did not pay attention to the email sent by them, informing that the pics upload will be removed if I don't take any action. Recalled that we did take some pics during our Poly years, but they were taken using the old camera. Can't remember where I put the films... *sheepish*

I had use lots of butterflies for her album, plus pics of other nature themes such as roosters, bird nests and flowers.

Here are the supplies used:

• Book Cover --  7Gypsies
• Base paper (2pcs)  -- DCWV Collage Musings Stack
• Cuts outs from  -- Prima Marketing Songbird Collection "title-it",   Prima Marketing Almanac Collection "Edison",  DCWV Collage Musings Stack,  DCWV Tres Chic Stack
• Vellum : Dear Lizzy Neapolitan "Lovely Afternoon"
• Prima flowers
• Doily
• Prima's "Say it with Crystals"
• Mini tag
• Washi tape from Tim Holtz collection
• Embellished butter from Jenni Bowlin Studio
• Lace
• pearls

There are quite a few more cuts out which I did not manage to trace them. Most of them are from my stash, so  I don't think they are available in the craft stalls now.

2 more mini accordion books to make. Can't wait to see the results!

Blue Flowers Card and Konnichiwa pocket card

A few "ortang" (owed) posts to clear... I have told myself I should make it a point to write down n the supplies used and the story behind every card I made. Have not written the stories behind these two cards I have made earlier, so here I go.

Blue flowers card for Fish

It's a belated birthday card for Fish as I couldn't managed to pass it to her earlier. The blue paper was bought last year. Have been keeping it for someone suitable and I thought Fish would be the perfect person to receive a card made from this paper and she likes blue and there is some air about her.

Fuzzy cut a few corners from the paper from KaiserCraft. Then topped up with pearls (lots of them!), blue flowers from Prima and chipboard from the latest collection from Prima collection and a tag from Melissa Frances series. Then inked it at the corners to create a vintage look.

Supplies used:

• Tea At Elsie's Collection paper from KaiserCraft
• Meadow Lark Journaling Chipboard from Prima
• Pale blue flower from Prima
• Pearls and crystals
• Tag from Melissa Frances

Cute Cute Card for the Cute Cute Gal

Did a card for Tracy, the youngest gal in my department just the day before the eve of her birthday. As she is the youngest and cutest, I have to do a cute cute card for her. Saw the new arrivals in Made with Love includes the Basic Grey's Konnichiwa line a few weeks back and rushed down to the shop after work on that day.

Well I am glad I did that as just 2 weeks later, I saw that they were sending back the remaining pieces of that series back to their warehouse as they have too many new stocks coming in.

Th reason why I had created a pock in the inner side of the card and slotted in a big tag is because I like the prints show on the exterior of the card. The characters are so cute that I dun wish to cover the paper with anything else.

The card on the exterior.

The interior (left) side of the card.

Supplies used:

• Basic Grey Konnichiwa Collection-- Hello Friend paper
• Basic Grey Konnichiwa Collection-- Sticker Titles
• Pink crystals and pearls
• Pink cardstock
• Flowers
• Red velvet stickers from my old stash

Ok, that's it! Looks like the next post will be one on an altered frame, which I am planning to do this week,

Aiko name plate & card set

2 months ago, I was fretting about what gift to create for Sheryl. Had created a card for Serene, and an accordion book for YSL. So Sheryl should get something different. Wanted to do an altered frame but heard she had not much space to put at her home , and she prefers something practical. Hence thought of doing a name plate (yes, this idea for creating a name plate for Sheryl came first but i end up creating this http://icemaidenpalace.blogspot.com/2012/03/altered-nameplate.html for Anqi first.)

When I chanced upon Papermarket's blog post on their new arrivals abt 1.5 months ago, I knew I have to get the series of Aiko papers (http://www.mylittleshoebox.com/p1/products.html) when I saw the pics. Sheryl had mentioned that she will be going to Japan for holiday and I thought she will like the Japanese dolls prints. The Japanese Dolls are sooooo Kawaii and it is not often that those scrapbooking paper suppliers come out with Oriental designs. I bought about 5 pieces of papers from the line and chuck them at a corner first while I worked on other projects that are more urgent.

Spent over two nights working on the name plate. First night was to decide on the layout. I have quite a few options of papers to choose from and in the end, I choose one with clouds and the other one with mini dolls for the name plate.

Here's the completed name plate for Sheryl.

Since there are some materials to spare, I created another matching card for her. All done in 15 minutes.

And I like them cos they are so matching!

Supplies used for name plate:

• My Little Shoebox Aiko paper-- Blue Sky (2 pieces)
• My Little Shoebox Aiko paper-- One Fine Day
• My Little Shoebox Aiko paper-- Happy Notes
• Thickers-- puffy letter stickers in Pink
• Glossy accent
• Plain wooden sign board

Supplies used for birthday card:

• My Little Shoebox Aiko paper-- Blue Sky
• My Little Shoebox Aiko paper-- One Fine Day
• My Little Shoebox Aiko paper-- Little Princess
• Orange cardstock
• Glossy accent
• "Happy Birthday" stamp from Technique Tuesday

Don't think the local scrapbooking stores are selling this Aiko line now, so if you are interested, you may have to try your luck sourcing them online.