I can hear bells ringing...

Finally, I've relieved myself of all deadlines and exams. It's time to make some Christmas cards! Still have about a week to get them ready before it's too late to send them out. Updates coming soon! ;)

Golden Anniversary

This year marks my parents-in-law's 50th wedding anniversary. It's amazing, being married for 50 golden years, with 5 children and 4 grandchildren. The family continues to grow bigger hopefully soon be blessed with grandchildren enough to fill the football field(s)!

As their anniversary gift I decided to restore one of their very old photo, which was in quite a bad condition. I scanned it into the computer and did some wonders with Photoshop. Then I reproduced the photo with my colour printer and that was used for my scrapbooking.

For this project, I started by distressing a piece of Bazzill cardstock with distress inks by Ranger. Using a piece of blending foam, I blended Tea Dye ink on the edges of the cardstock, and then later I used the clock face from Timeworks masks (also by Tim Holtz) and distressed it further with the blending foam.

I love the fact that the mask was so easy to use!

Then I cut some letters out with my Cricut Create machine, and used Glossy Accents to create a 3D effect on the words 'golden'. As soon as it was dry, I simply dabbed the gold pigment inkpad across all the letters. Later I distressed the edges of numbers '50' with a pair of scissors just to give it that 'antique' look.

Cricut letters inked with Tsukineko's gold pigment inkpad

I placed the photo on a dark brown cardstock, secured it with brads and distressed the edges with a pair of scissors. This was layered on a piece of torn tracing paper.

In order to match the flowers to this project, I used plain white Prima flowers and sprayed it with some Walnut and Tea Dye distress inks. When the ink was dry, I used the same gold pigment inkpad on the top for that little glitter effect.

And voila my first scrapbooking project!

Happy 50th Anniversary!

Happy Birthday Mama Ming

A bubbly card for a bubbly character

I used Fiddlerz3 paper as a base for my design on top of a yellow cardstock. On the front is a picture of Ming with her signature smile. I cut out the 'Happy Birthday' from a roll of ribbon and set it on the card with 2 eyelets. Although I love my Crop-a-dile (CAD), I had to use my Making Memories Tool kit to set the eyelets this time as it was too deep to use CAD (maximum depth of 2 inch only). The envelope was made using brown packaging paper, a little thin but it gave a nice touch to the card :)

Cake Pops

I came across Bakerella 's website while browsing for scrapbooking inspirations. Funny how both is so unrelated yet being discovered together ;) I immediately got hooked and vowed that I'd make one of these soon, maybe for the upcoming halloween!

Coincidentally, Lyne wanted to have a cook-in session at my place this weekend, but instead I suggested a bake-in session *grin* .I sent her the link to Bakerella's cake pops and to entice her ... and she said yes... look at what we came up with!

My very first cake pop... a mummy!

Here birdie birdie...

Run for your lifeeeee!!!

Frankenstein's monster

We spent close to 5 hours preparing and making the above, including the waiting time (the cake balls had to be chilled first). Originally we planned to make some pumpkins too, but I simply couldn't get a proper orange out of the white chocolate, and so I kept them for a later time.

This is just the beginning, more cake pops coming soon! :) Check out my other blog post for our step by step process to making cake pops.

Flamenco-rama

Joyce, my flamenco maestra celebrates her birthday in October. And nothing is better than a personalised flamenco dancer birthday card dedicated specially for her! I found a nice picture of flamenco dancer online and cut out the silhoutte using my collection of red Fiddlerz3 papers. On the background is a piece of pink paper embossed with my Cuttlebug embossing folder. For a final touch I layers 2 punch out flowers and embellised with a silver rhinestud. I also highlighted the dancer's silhoutte with pink glitter pen for that extra ummph!

Better Late Than Never

Lyne's birthday was coming up but I knew that I wouldn't be able to give her both the card and present on time, so I made her a belated one instead.

Almost there... the tortoise is on the way to deliver the birthday card

As the base, I used the Bazzill Rainforest Green cardstock. The tortoise was drawn on a piece of aquarelle paper (200gsm) and painted with Pelikan watercolour. Basically I googled for pictures of a tortoises and mailboxes and came up with cartoon on my own. The words "almost there" was done using my Cricut machine and Opposites Attract cartridge. The light olive green checkered mat is from Fiddlerz 3 Autumn Felt collection.

The inside with a belated birthday wish

The inside was fairly simple, though I should have completed the card with another cartoon strip - perhaps of the tortoise finally arriving the mailbox. But I really wasn't very good with drawing and watercolours, just the front was enough to get me sweating. Simply need more practice! Using a ready made rubber stamp might have helped :)

Made with love - green hemp bracelet

As a little gift for her I made a hemp bracelet. I chose a few pieces of millefiori cube beads and one large clear acrylic bead from my collection and put them all together using macrame square knots. I learnt it from Teach Yourself Visually - Jewelry making & Beading, but you can also get this technique from this page at Elainecraft.com

The little handbag to put in my handmade bracelet

I thought it was good idea to put the bracelet in cute little handbag this rather than just wrapping it up with papers and ribbons. So, I used the Cricut Tags, Bags, Boxes and More Cartridge to cut out a little purse shape on an orange cardstock. Then I embellished it with paper flower punch outs and eyelets. Finally I added a piece of white ribbon as the handle for the handbag. There we have it! A pretty handbag for a pretty bracelet :)

The New Mr. & Mrs. Goo

Congratulations sis!

My sister's getting married! I can't be there when they exchange their wedding rings in the Land Down Under later this month, but my best wishes are definitely with them :)

The patterns on the Arctic blue Bazzill cardstock was made with the Cuttlebug embossing folder (and my rolling pin). I coloured a little picture of them together on a white heart cardstock with watercolour pencils before adding some clear Liquid Embossing - Glass finish by All Night Media to enhance the effects. Then I assembled it all together and after adding a ribbon strip on the blue base.