Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I've just finished wrapping all my Christmas gifts for my family (added video below)... and put away my non-stick craft mat, cleaned my craft table (not exactly squeaky clean but it's neat...I think), and relaxing while I let the holiday mood set in. Will resist anymore crafting until after the new year *fingers crossed* and spend some quality family time! We had an early celebration with my hubby's family last weekend with lots of pressies for the children, and this week my family will be coming over to my place for a steamboat session ....yay!!!

Since it's impossible to send Christmas cards to everyone, before I go on my hibernation I'll attempt to hop to every blog that I follow and send some holidays greetings :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

Grungy Clear Card

Would you believe it if I told you it took me a little more than 1 week to complete just 2 cards? I started by dry embossing 2 pieces of acetate, and I got stuck. Then several days later I took out my nestabilities and cut out some label shapes, tried to position it on the card, and I got stuck again. I laid out every thing I thought I would need, and those items simply did not communicate with me. So I left them alone, and went mojo hunting.

Tools and materials used: [Merry Christmas Card] Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Tiny Textures, Red Glitter embossing powder, Peeled Paint Distress Ink, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Prima Music Script Clear Stamp, Icicle Stickles, Grungeboard, Candy Cane embossing folder, Acrylic paint, Sand paper, Alphabet Stickers, Nestabilities Label One, TH Townscape die, Double sided foam tape  [Bonne Année Card] Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Tiny Textures, Clear embossing powder, Broken China Distress Ink, fine and dandy scrap patterned paper, Acrylic paint, Crackle paint, Frosted Lace stickles, Alphabet Stickers, Nestabilities Label One, Rock Candy Stickles, Double sided foam tape

I decided that I'd turn them into Tim Holtz inspired cards. I didn't have enough items to create any more tags (I could probably create one more, but I'm using 'brain dead' and 'insufficient material' excuse not to do them now), so I thought I'd attempt 2 challenges - one at Studio L3-Rock Candy Distress Stickles, and one at Simon Says Stamp and Show-Show a Lord of Tim Holtz Technique.

And so I embossed 2 pieces of the nestabilities with embossing powders, red on one, and clear on the other. Then I distressed them both with different colour inks. So far so good... before my mojo went for a walk in the park again. This was not good. Left them again, went out for lunch and dinner, and then {light bulb} AH-HAH, I can do something with my grungeboard and Townscape diecut!!! Ran the grungeboard through my Cuttlebug, divided the houses to 2 portion, dry embossed one on my candy cane embossing folder (similar to what TH for his Day #1 tag with the Rickety House) and on the other I used crackle paint.

First part of the townscape - embossed with candy cane folder, painted with acrylic paint and sanded to reveal the grungeboard

Second part of the townscape - painted with acrylic paint, layered with crackle paint

Rock candy stickles on the background - looks like snow, doesn't it?

So here's 2 different versions of card using similar items. I must say the Townscape die is really versatile! I can already think of a few other ways I can use them!

Side tracking a little, look at what I won from 2peas in a bucket Thinking Inking Week 7 for this card HERE!

Patterned cardstock, rub-ons, clear stamp, stickers, flags, flowers - all nicely packaged and arrived in mint condition, thanks to 2peas and their sponsor Imaginisce! An early Christmas present for me :))

Will be submitting this to Glitter is Glam Challenge in the Moxie Fab World too! You have time till Jan 3, 2011 to participate!

Thank you so much for dropping by!

More Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas - Day 9

I know TH already posted his Day 10 tag today, but this is the Day 9 tag that I started making yesterday, and didn't like leaving it unfinished before I work on a new one. I didn't have all things TH, so I could only improvise and replace whatever I didn't have with something from my stash.

Tools and materials used: Manila tag, Prima Clear Stamp, My Mind's Eye Paper, Thickers, Chocolate brads, Buttons, Tulle, Distress inkpad in Tea dye, Walnut stain and Spiced Marmalade, Organza ribbons, beads, jump rings, twill, Perfect Pearls, Mini mister, Hot glue gun

For a start, I didn't have that gorgeous tinsel he placed behind the rosette flower, so I replaced it with a scrunched organza ribbon. Also I didn't have the trimmings, so I used the white twill that was in my stash and distressed it (somehow it doesn't absorb the ink as good as the trimmings Tim used so its a bit dull, but they will do). And to distress the alphabets, I used my emery board instead of a sanding block, LOL...the tulle...there's a story behind it...I don't just hoard tulle for no reason...this was actually part of the tulle that was used to decorate my wedding car 3 years ago! Yes, I still have them, all of it, in my safe keeping, and I thought it was alright to cut out a small piece to decorate my tag ;)

Thickers distressed with emery board - love how it looked so I didn't add on the glossy accents

Of course if you look at Tim's tag, you'll notice that there are many other things that I have substituted with whatever I have or made myself e.g. rosette flower, brads, background stamp, buttons... but I think everything turned out alright. As Tim says, the 12 tags are all about being inspired.

Some of the charms from my stash - did you notice the musical note I added to match the background?

I'll try to do the Day 10 tag tomorrow once I'm done with the boring house chores!

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas - Day 8 Masking Technique

I've always been fascinated by Tim's inspirational 12 tags of Christmas. He is very generous in sharing his knowledge of turning something plain into something wonderful. I still remember discovering his works last year, when I first started my craft blog. In the learning process I've been accumulating a lot of tools and materials which proved to be very useful in my paper crafting moments.

Tools and materials used: TH Stampers Anonymous Tiny Textures, Psychedelic Grunge Stamp, Distress inkpad in Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade, Peeled Paint, Broken China, Dusty Concord and Walnut Stain, TH Idealogy Timeworks Mask, Dymo label maker, Cricut Tags and Bags Cartridge

Frankly speaking I would love to make tags just like him, but sometimes it's just not possible because I haven't hoard enough of his stuff yet, LOL. And so I have to improvise. Take smaller steps. Instead of trying all the techniques he introduced in one single tag, I tackle one at a time. And I can try the rest later when I'm better 'equipped'. Here's one I made using the masking techniques he introduced in Tag #8.

Hope you like them :)

Happy Holidays

Thank you so much for all your sweet comments for my tag yesterday. You girls are the kindest souls and the best blogger friends one could ever ask for. The tag does look much better this morning, but I was still not quite satisfied with how the flourishes were. Really, I need to give myself a break.. LOL!

I had wanted to make another pull out card this evening, but somehow my mojo just wasn't there. So I worked on some holiday cards instead.

Tools and materials used: [CARD 1:] Kraft paper, HA Snowman stamp, Coloured pencils, MS Scallop border punch, Archival ink, White Chalk ink, divine twine [CARD 2:] Kraft paper, HA Snowman stamp, Coloured pencils, Divine twine, Archival ink, white chalk ink

I'm submitting these cards to wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge - Holiday Music Inspiration (this is inspired by the song Frosty the Snowman)

This Oughta Teach Me...

...not to make anything when my brain is already half asleep. This tag turned out to be a complete mess, and I have no idea where I was heading when I started. I actually prepared those puzzles early last week using the double distress technique from Tim Holtz Compendium of Curiousities, but haven't got a chance to make them into something. And I think I've just wasted them on this tag :(

Tools and materials used: Manila tag, Grunge paper, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Distress Inks, Rhinestones, Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous stamps, Paper crimper, Perfect Pearls, Glossy Accent, Cuttlebug butterfly diecut, Organza ribbon.

Hopefully when I wake up tomorrow morning I will see it in a different light, and that it will look better.

I'm entering this tag to the following challenges:
1. Studio L3 Challenge #23 - Double Distress
2. Simon Says Stamp and Show - A Tag

Shutting down.

Flashback Friday Challenge 5.0

I can't believe it's already more than one year since I craft-blogged. Thought it would be fun to reminisce on some of the cards that I created during the infancy of this blog and play along with Amy's Flashback Friday Challenge 5.0. For this challenge we are to re-post the first card uploading using a new-to-me technique. So here's my very first easel card, with help from a tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.

I think I've made only one other easel card other than this one. Somehow I've not made as many because I thought it uses up too much paper. It's a great way for your recipient to display your beautiful creations though :)

Thank you so much for dropping by!

What a Short Weekend!

I can't believe that the weekend is almost over :( There are still so many things that are left unchecked on my todo list! *PANIC*

Anyway, I got to meet up with Evelin on Friday evening, and boy did we have a long chatty time...LOL. We do have a lot of things in common, don't we? And then yesterday I finally completed my SpongeBob cake pop order together with my little kitchen helper :) More details on my other blog HERE.

SpongeBob Cake Pops

I don't have any paper crafts to show for now, but I'll blog again if I can squeeze in something before the day ends. Shower time first!

Happy Birthday Sis!

Did y'all miss me?

Sorry I haven't been going round to leave some love. Last weekend my hubby and I went to HK for a short holiday. It's my first and probably the only vacation this year, because I had other plans which however did not materialise in the end. My hubby still have several days of his annual leave to clear, so we bought last minute tickets to HK and we went to Disneyland! I thought holidays were suppose to be a re-energizing and yet I come home feeling totally exhausted. Hopefully by next week when my schedule is not so crazy I'll have time to upload some pics.

Meanwhile, here's a card I made for my youngest sister's birthday. It's her birthday today! She loves the Tazmanian devil to bits, and her collection of Taz of Warner Bros has taken over half her bed space! So there's nothing better than a Taz card for her :)

Tools and materials used: Taz digital image, Bazzill cardstock, Shabby Princess digital paper, Sticky back canvas, Distress ink in Tea Dye, Lawn Fawn bannerific stamp, TCP sentiment stamp, Copics, Nestabilities Label One

Thanks for dropping by! As soon as I'm more organized I'll come by your blogs :)