#1 Card Swap @ Malaysia Cardmakers on FB

This particular card is my "chicken soup for the soul". I joined the Malaysian Cardmakers group on FB and their first card swap event to keep my crafty engine running :)

The theme given was: Mother's Day, Green, Stamping. We were supposed to at least incorporate 2 of the requirements, but I think I managed to cover all three, although vaguely.

Supplies: lawn fawn Sew Lovely stamp set, mt masking tape, MME patterned papers, MME die cut, MME Vanity Fair Note cards, Archival ink in Jet Black, Distress ink in Vintage Photo, double sided foam tape, Ribbon, Kaiser pearl.

Some of the cards posted by the participants were really beautiful, that I sometimes feel that my card seemed really mundane. But this was all I could manage the ABC taking up all my time. I really hope my swap partner will like it anyhow :) Actually this was the second card, the first one (that looked exactly the same) was damaged when I accidentally left a piece of wet baby wipes underneath it. Thank goodness it didn't take me very long to redo the card.

I'm really happy that you take the time to drop by :)

Have a great weekend!

Welcome Joanna

Thank you so much to those who stopped by my last post on my ABC's birthday, and for leaving sweet comments! I missed you guys too and hope to be able to keep up with my crafting and blogging. As soon as their birthday party was over I seem to feel much more less stressed, as it's a huge CHECK off my to-do list :)

I'd like to share a card I made last year for my friend's absolutely adorable daughter Joanna, who is just like a daughter to me :) She's almost 7 months old now with sweet chubby cheeks that I just want to chomp on every time I see her, LOL

Supplies: Unity Stamp Frazzled, lawn fawn Harold's ABC stamp, paper smooches stamp, Simon Says Stamp Circle Border Craft Die, MME Patterned Note card, Jenni Bowlin inks, Distress markers, Versafine Onyx Black ink pad

The large Unity doll stamp was paper pieced and then coloured with distress markers. I must say I really love this cute doll stamp. It was easy to put together this card, simply gotta love the pattern-printed notecard which makes a great card base. So handy to have around when time is a constraint for people like me.

Thanks again for stopping by. Your comments always make my day :)

Bubble-Happy Birthday Party

How I miss the world of blogging! It's been so long I almost forgot how to login to this page, LOL.

My life still revolves around feeding and diaper changing at the moment, though now my challenges include finding ways to keep ABC entertained while they are awake, and trying to get them to nap at the same time so that I could have some "me" time. Not very successful at the latter, but I'm getting there (I hope!)

The boys just celebrated their first birthday about 3 weeks ago with the family and some close friends. The party was nice and cosy and I'm glad I had time to mingle with everyone that came since we only had a handful of guests. Family members self-entertained of course :)

I had initially planned to engage a party planner to save me from headaches, but in the end I did all of it by myself. As usual I feel blessed to have family members who helped out with the preparations despite being occupied with babysitting for me already. And I simply had to sacrifice my already insufficient sleep to get things done, but nothing gives me better satisfaction then to plan my darling ABC's 1st birthday party.

The theme of the party was Bubble Guppies, since it was one of their favourite shows on TV (yes, I'm guilty of exposing them to TV at this age, but somebody's got to keep them entertained while they wait for their meal to be served). I took their photos and superimposed them on the Bubble Guppies characters, and I must say I'm really proud of the results :D

Nick Jr. website was a good resource for party printables which made my life a wee bit easier. There were ready placemats, colouring pages for kids and tabletop decoration that I could print out. I only had to work on the main poster and thank you tags. And also printed out large versions of the characters's hairdo for the photo booth. While their sweet godmother sponsored their birthday cake :)

I breathed a sigh of relief as soon as the party was over... although the exhaustion brought about plenty of satisfaction (and a cure for my crafty-itch, LOL).

Will be back with some other cards/sewing project that I made in the last few months... soon. 

Thanks for dropping by!

From Owl of Us

This is way overdue, but I must say that I'm so very blessed to have great family members and friends. Many of them who gave generous and very thoughtful gifts for my ABC. I wanted to show my sincere thanks and my sisters suggested that I made some thank-you tokens.

I was a bit reluctant in the beginning as I simply didn't have the energy to spend time making personal favors, and again my family members were there to the rescue. All I had to do was to create one sample, and my sisters and my mom ran the "production line". Well, I did have to do all the stamping (none of them dared to do it despite reassurance from me that it was easy), but they did all the wrapping and twine tying and all. I'm really really grateful for their help. A big thank you to my mom and my sisters - You GUYS are the BEST!

Supplies: Basic Grey Clear Stamp, Hero Arts Circles Stamp, lawn fawn Harold's ABC stamp, Jenni Bowlin brown sugar, Chewing Gum, Lemon drop, Soap Powder inkpad, divine twine, computer photo paper, Ferrero Kinder chocolates.

I guess having all the tools necessary made this process really simple. One of my best investments was in the Martha Stewart scoring board, which really sped things up. :) This was my very first crafty project after the birth of ABC.

My sincerest thanks to all you lovely people out there and again to my family for their never ending support to make this possible.

Done in 10 minutes

My friend HT is one of those who really appreciate handmade cards and collects them. And of course I made sure I gave her one every year, and this year was no different. However with ABCs around I could not afford to make elaborate ones and this one was done within 10 mins.

Supplies: MME Cutie Pie Clear Stamp, Unity Sentiment Stamp, MME Together decorative tape, Jenni Bowlin inkpads in Chewing Gum, Lemon Drop, Distress marker in Broken China, Versafine Smokey Grey inkpad, scrap MME Lush patterned paper, Distress inkpad in Vintage Photo, pop up dots

For my Malaysian friends, I have both the clear stamp set and decorative tape for sale HERE if anyone is interested. I've also stocked up some new divine twine colours.

Have a great day!

Happy 56th Birthday!

It's really satisfying to be able to squeeze in some time despite my lack of sleep to work on something crafty once in a while. It's not that I don't enjoy spending time with ABC, but a girl has gotta have her break too eh? *wink*

Supplies: MME Lush Pink Paper, iPhone, Unity Kit of the Month, Unity {itty bitty} stamps, MME alphabet rub-ons, Stampendous mini Alphabet stamps, Jenny Bowlin Brown Sugar inkpad, Tim Holtz Distress markers in Fired Brick & Vintage Photo, Versafine Onyx Black ink, Distress inkpad in Antique Linen and Vintage Photo, washi tape, divine twine

Here's a layout I made for my mom's 56th birthday. It is not very often that all of us could contribute to one single meaningful gift, but somehow inspiration struck me and I managed to involve everyone this time, even if they were across continents! Everyone contributed a self portrait of themselves with a letter assigned to them to make this special birthday wish. I kept the layout to a minimum so that everyone could stand out.

ABC are calling for me again...hee hee... thanks for stopping by!

Warm Thoughts for You

My sister in law in OZ recently had a surgery and is undergoing a tough recovery period. She had originally wanted to come visit her 3 nephews, but have to put that on hold temporarily because it was too painful for her to travel. I thought it would be nice to send her a handmade card to wish her speedy recovery along with some photos of ABC.

Supplies: Unity July 2009 KOTM, Unity Oct2009 KOTM, Unity Watermelon Gazpacho Soup, Washi tape, Divine Twine, Cork Sheet, Kenzone Cardstock, Hero Arts Midtone Pool Ink, Copic Markers, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Pop Up Dots, Glue Dots

I haven't been making cards for a long time, so this one was tough me. It was really helpful to have the sketch over at Unity Challenge site as my guide. My hubby brought over some of my cardmaking stuffs to my mom's. Still unsure how long it will be before I can move back home. Almost impossible for me to handle ABC without the same help I'm getting here.

I'm submitting the card to the following challenges:
1. Unity July 2012 KOTM Sketch Challenge
2. Unity June 2012 - Summertime