Each Passing Year is Another Journey Travelled

Hi everyone, hope all of you is enjoying the week so far.

I'll be flying back to Indonesia on Thursday evening as it's Eid ul-Fitr (which translates to lots and lots of yummy food for the whole weekend, wooohooo!!!), so I thought I'd publish another post tonight.

Today's card is a card for my brother in law's birthday, which falls sometime this week--I've already mailed out this card a couple of days ago but I'm quite certain that's it's gonna reach him late! Oooopsss, my bad!

Anyway, here's the card using Card Pattern's Sketch 80. Not sure that the pattern is 100% as sketched, as it turned out that the bicycle image was too wide for a rectangular card T_T.



My brother in law loves cycling, so choosing the bicycle image as the topper was not a hard choice :). I created this bike silhouette digistamp from an image from Modish at SXC.



The cardstock and patterned paper I used were SEI's Oasis range; it's definitely one of my favorites although I think they might have discontinued this range :(.



As an embellishment, I printed a verse on kraft paper and adhered it to a punched scalloped circle cardstock (cut by my new Marvy Uchida Scalloped Circle Punch). Font credit goes to Kevin and Amanda's Free Scrapbook Fonts.

I'm submitting this cards to these following challenges too: CCCB Week 21 (One for the Boys, using the color blue), Paper Cutz Challenge #57 (1 ribbon, 2 button, and 3 colors--blue, brown and cream), and also enrolling them for the second time at Bee Crafty's Anything Goes (with digi-image), Daisy Doodles Creative Challenge's Anything Goes, and Digi Doodle Shop's Best Challenge (Write Me a Message).

Okay people... Gotta go now, got some packing to do :). Hope you enjoy the rest of the week and keep an eye out for my next post 'cos I may be posting loads of photos of oh-so-yummy food!

Cheerios!

Much love,
F

New House! - Set of 3

Hi people, enjoying the weekend so far?

I've been meaning to make these cards ever since my husband and I moved into our new house, but welllll... being me, I've only gotten around to make them today ^_^. I made a set of house-themed digistamps to 'celebrate' moving in to this house and I thought I'd make a set of 'change of address' cards.

So here they are, using CPS #183 sketch.


These cute cards are so quick and easy to make, especially with my Woodware craft punches. Gone are the days of painstakingly cutting circles with scalloped scissors! :) The cardstock I used were plain colored 160 gsm office supply papers, patterned paper is DCWV's The Spring Stack.

I colored the digis using watercolor pencils. I quite enjoy using pencils to color stamped images; I think it's easier to fix when I make mistakes. I can actually erase and recolor some parts of the image, like what I did on these three images :D.

On top of the CPS blog, I'm also submitting these cuties to Stamp Something's Something Cute Challenge, Digi Doodle Shop's Best Write Me a Message Challenge, as well as Bee Crafty's Anything Goes challenge (have to use digital image, though), and Daisy Doodles Creative Challenges Anything Goes.

That's all for today's post, but I promise I'll be back early next week with another card that I made for my brother in law :D.

Thanks for visiting and enjoy the rest of your weekend!


Much love,
F

Dressed For Success :)

Hi again :)!

Since I haven't posted anything in four weeks, I thought I may as well publish two posts in a day now, LOL!

Anyway, one of my colleagues who also happens to be a dear friend of mine is leaving next week :(. Yes, it's very sad for me as she's very, very funny and she keeps our office alive (and makes those dreadful workday afternoons bearable, LOL), but I'm also happy for her as she's making a move into her own business :).

Anyway, I made her this card to go with her farewell gift (and again keeping my fingers crossed that she does not see this post until I gave her the card, LOL), using Sketch #182 from the Card Positioning Systems Blog.

I made the digistamp of a party dress a while back, which I thought goes quite well with the theme; wishing my friend all the best of success in the future :). To give the dress a fabric-looking effect, I printed one image onto a white paper, another on a SEI Juliette Lady's Boudoir pearl paper, and another on a plain gray paper that I smeared with silver glitter glue. I pieced the three layers together and voila! A glitzy, girly and glamorous party dress :). Simon Says Challenge Blog has their Paper Piecing Challenge this week, therefore I'm entering this card to the pool too!


I made and printed the sentiments "Dressed for Success" on a normal printer paper; font credit goes to Kevin and Amanda at Free Scrapbook Fonts. The rose I used for the embellishment was made from off-white flannel. Lastly, I'm posting this card to Bee Crafty's Anything Goes challenge, that requires the use of a digi image; as well as Stamptacular Sunday's Challenge Pretty in Pink. Aly's Sunday Challenge has the pretty in pink theme too, which makes it super convenient for me ^_^


Well that's all for today... I still have some more cards to make this week but more on that later :). Enjoy the rest of your weekend and thanks for viewing!

Much love,
F

Back from Hibernation.. and Welcomed by an Award! ^_^

Helllooooo everyone... It sure is great to be back in bloggerland!

It has been exactly four weeks since my last blog post and I really, really miss making cards, but I literally have been lost amongst a sea of boxes at my new house :). I can't believe it had taken me more than three weeks to sort out my work space with the amount of paper scraps and many other bits and bobs, but thankfully it's all done and now I have a bigger study-cum-studio for all my crafting endeavors! Yayyy!

Last week I got a nice, wonderful surprise from fellow blogger-slash-cardmaker Jan R, who has so kindly awarded me with the "Cherry On Top" Award.


Thank you very much for the award, Jan, and also for your kind comments on my blog ^_^!!

This award has some conditions, however, which are:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award... DONE!
2. Add it to your blog... DONE!
3. List 3 things about yourself:
- I have an odd, inexplicable fondness of clothes hangers. I use them to hang anything just about anywhere in my house and I could not resist going to a home appliances shop without buying at least ten new plastic hangers every single time. Oh, and I just HAVE TO hang all of them facing the same direction in the closet. Otherwise, I won't sleep soundly at night.
- In pretty much the same way, I have a strange paranoia for geckos a.k.a house lizards. This goes to the extent where I would not step into a room where I suspect one is present.
- I don't like watching movies at home because I have a very, very short attention span. I can only watch proper films in a cinema because it requires me to SIT DOWN for the entire duration, and when I'm at home, I can only watch a 45-minute TV series at the max.

4. Post your favorite pic:
This is a difficult choice. I guess I'll just have to post two of my recent favorites:

A photo of the Golden Temple I took in Kyoto, Japan

Chocolate-coated strawberries I snapped at a Godiva Chocolatier Shop in Brussels, Belgium

5. Send the award to 5 people-- I think these five following bloggers deserve this "Cherry On Top" Award:

1. Agustina at Made with Love: Agustina's cards are beautiful, but her blog I love even more! It has a pretty wind-chime on the page and it's all pink and lovely :). She also posts other crafts on her blog, not only cards, so it's a plus!
2. Dwita at Crafter's Life: Dwita's cards are cute and fab, and she holds craft courses on making Bookmarks and Washi Dolls too!
3. Addii at Addii: Addii is such a creative cardmaker and she always actively participates in various cardmaking challenges!
4. Monika at Creative with Monika: Monika is an avid stamper and a very, very prolific cardmaker although she's a busy mum of two! Her cards are cute and gorgeous!
5. Ayu at Ayu's Projects: Ayu's cards are very cute, and once in a while Ayu gives away her super cute hand-made digistamps, which I love!

Thanks again for Jan and much love for everyone! Thanks for visiting!

Much love,
F

Happy Birthday Dad! (And A Discount Coupon for All of You!!)

Hi there!

Well, two birthday cards down last week, three more to go :). Next week will be the last week before we have to move house though, so with all the bits and bobs we have yet to pack, I don't know whether I'd be able to finish and mail all the cards in time :(.

Anyway, in the midst of folding and packing a sea of clothes while listening to Jason Mraz's I'm Yours - Remix (trust me, this song really makes any kind of house chores more enjoyable--albeit slower as I'd dance like fifty per cent of the time!), I managed to squeeze in making one more birthday card for my beloved dad.

I haven't submitted any cards to the CPS blog for the past two weeks, so this week I played along with their sketch #178 Challenge :). I loved their sketch this week; very clean and simple, so I'm also submitting it to the Stamp, Scrap & Doodle Saturday Blog challenge--their theme for this week happens to be clean and simple as well.

I managed to create AND finish a digital paper kit on Saturday, which is very, very fast by my standards :), so I got to use it for today's card. I have yet to find a suitable name for the kit, though, LOL. I also used a digital stamp of a tree for the topper.


The interesting part of this card is the embellishment; I used three wooden-carved letters to form the word "DAD". I bought these wooden letters from a local craft shop a few months back, and I've actually forgotten that I'd bought them. Luckily I found them amongst my pile of paper scraps when I was making this card, LOL.


Now on to the discount coupon!!

Since my dad's birthday's coming up, I want to celebrate it by sharing a little joy with everybody :). If you have a special man in your life that you'd like to give a present to, now is the perfect time!

Hop on to Brookstone Online Store today for a wide selection of unique, thoughtful gifts for dad or that special someone that you love.

~ February Lane ~ readers will get to enjoy $10 off any online purchase of $70 or more!!

Enter this coupon code when you purchase from their online shop: 22SAVE

That's all for now, hope you'll enjoy the discount coupon! Thanks for visiting!

Much love,
F

Birthday Lilies ♥

Yes, yes, I know, another flowery card this week... Hope I haven't bored you with all my girly cards yet!

Well, if I can blame someone for my obsessive infatuation of flowers, it will be my dearest mum (love you mum, but the truth will out one of these days, LOL). Yep, my mum really loves gardening and she always decorates our house with flowers, fresh or plastic :). But since I have neither the time nor the green thumb she does; making girly, flowery cards is a perfect enough outlet for me :).

Anyway, I've mentioned in one of my previous posts that both my parents' birthdays are coming up in August. So I made this birthday card for my mum, and I thought this digital stamp of two lilies that I made earlier this week is perfect for her. I printed it on heavy white cardstock and colored it with water color pencils.

I used Papertake Weekly Challenge Sketch #45 for the pattern, and the color theme was taken from Color Throwdown #103... but the red turned out to be much too pink... :(.


I also wanted take part in the Digital Tuesday Challenge #69, Dazzle Me, so I used one of my most favorite SEI papers, Mimosa Sangria glitter paper. Unfortunately my photos don't really show off the glittery texture of the paper, sorry ladies!! :) :) But don't worry, I've got three Prima Marketing jewel drops to add some sparkle!


I made a flower embellishment from cotton crochet lace and added a plastic brown button--tied to the flower using a piece of jute string--to finish off. That made up seven elements that I used for this card, people: cardstock, patterned paper, digital stamp, jewel drops, cotton lace, plastic button and jute string. Yayyy, I get to submit this card to Practical Scrappers' Challenge too, which is to use 7 items or more on my card!!



Well, all that said, I'm also submitting this post to Stamp Something's Weekly Challenge, albeit last minute (I literally a few hours left on the clock for its InLinkz submission, LOL!). Their challenge this week is to make a flowery design, and I think this card is a perfect candidate :) :). Last but not least, I am also posting this entry to Dutch Dare Card Challenge #83, Anything Goes.

Thanks so much for visiting, do visit again for another one of my posts this weekend!!

Much love,
F

Birthday on Wheels

Hello there!

If you have been reading my previous posts, you'd probably know that August will be a super busy month for me. Not only will I be moving to a new house (yaaayy!!), but I also have to make five birthday cards to send out throughout the month (pheeww).

So I may as well get a head start, I thought, by making one of the birthday cards this weekend.The first person who's having his birthday in August is my brother in law, who's a huge fan of cars. Yep, you guessed correctly, that's why finding a theme for this birthday card was a piece of cake, LOL. Today's card will be the card that I'd send to him next week, so I'm basically keeping my fingers crossed that he won't be reading this blog post before the card's off in post, LOL :).

As I was blog hopping, I also happened to come across the Paper Cutz Blog's Challenge #51, which is to make a creation that features something with wheels, which is a perfect match with this project's idea. I combined the theme with Sweet Stampin' Challenge Blog's Challenge 36, create something vintage, and came up with the design for this card.


I used Martine's Sketch from Simon Says Challenge Blog, although I think I might have made quite an alteration on the sketch as I thought following it as is might disrupt the topper's balance on my design--sorry, Martine :).


I also used Donna's recipe from the Cards for Men blog, which is Challenge #15. They'd asked readers to combine one image, two papers and three embellishments, which is exactly what I've done (well, although I used more than three embellishments. Couldn't resist the temptation! But I did use three buttons, though).

The Fussy and Fancy Girls over at the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge have also posted an exciting challenge a week ago, which is creating a design with scallop, stitches and sparkles. I used faux stitches for this card, adhered scalloped edges to one of the papers, and used four sparkly (well, metallic, to be exact) eyelets to embellish the card. And last but not least, I'm also posting this card to Digi Doodle Shop's Best Anything Goes Challenge.


Again, I used two of my "For His Eyes Only" digital papers for this card. I have not grown out of it for now :), plus I haven't gotten around to designing another kit for men :) :).

Well, that's all for tonight. It's gonna be the start of a busy week tomorrow, so I'd better kick it off with a good night sleep!! Thanks for visiting and have a great week ahead!

Love,
F

A Midsummer Day's Christmas Card

Hi everyone!

It's a rainy weekend here in Singapore, so I had every reason to stay in and catch up with my stack of craft materials that I've neglected for weeks now. My husband and I have finally made an offer on a flat, so fingers crossed that it'll be the end of our house-hunting season soon!! Yayyy!!

Although it is still officially summer in most parts of the world, today I made a cool, crisp and icy looking Christmas card. Not that I'm preparing for Christmas just yet--in actual fact, I still have some countless number of cards to make before August comes, with the myriad of people around me that somehow decided to have their birthdays in August (which includes both my parents, whose birth dates are just four days apart. Pheeewww!).

Anyway, Donna of the Cards for Men blog posted her No. 14 challenge, which is Christmas in July. As I was looking for inspiration, I bumped into Caz's, Deb's and Lynn's blog, Cute Card Thursday, and their challenge for this week is also to get a head start for Christmas cardmaking. Well, two reasons for creating Christmas cards in July is good enough for me :)! Using the CPS #176 sketch from the lovely team at Card Positioning Systems Blog, I created this card.


I used a digital stamp that I created last Christmas, which is a snuggly, furry winter bear holding a bell and a candy cane. I hand drew, scanned and saved the image as a PNG object, then printed it on a heavy 200 gsm white paper before coloring it with Faber Castell watercolor pencils. I really liked this image but since most of the Christmas cards I created last year was either vintage or bold looking, I did not have the chance to use it.


I also used two sheets from my English Roses digital paper pack. So as most of the materials for this card were digital, I also decided to post this card for the the Something Digital challenge that I found in the Stamp Something blog.


Instead of using the usual pre-folded card blank, I made a gate-fold card using American Crafts' AC Cardstock in Lagoon. After adhering the background panels cut from my digital papers (printed on heavy 110 gsm inkjet paper), I used a wide 2" blue satin ribbon for embellishment, before adhering the stamped bear as a topper.

That's all for today, would love to write more but as always, weekends always bring a bunch of ironing for me :). Thanks for visiting!

Much love,
F

My Grandma's Birthday Bouquet ♥

Helllooooo...

Wow, two weeks went by so fast and I did not even realize that I have not posted anything in more than two weeks. More than two weeks, people!! Amazing as this translates to, of course, two weeks without crafting, cardmaking, taking photos or writing. Pheww.

Well, I have a pretty good excuse for being MIA, though. My husband and I are on the hunt for another apartment as we need to move out of our current one by mid next month. I have mixed feelings about this; partially excited over getting a new place to ransack :D, but also slightly saddened as this house is, after all, the first house we've lived in after we got married :(.

Anyway, I'm sure it'll turn out for the best and we'll find a great place soon :).

Two weeks ago was my husband's birthday and just so happen that we were invited to one of our friends' wedding in Indonesia. (And this means that hereafter, on every 3rd of July, I will have to make a birthday card for my husband AND an anniversary card for my friend :P)

As much as I would like to post the must-have-been-lovely photos that I would've taken at the wedding, since I had to leave the office late that day and headed directly to the airport, my darling husband had forgotten to pick up our camera from the house :( :(. This is despite him knowing that disuniting me from any types of camera on a holiday can and will send me on a catastrophic tantrum that costs him no less than a pint of Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough to subdue.

The day after the wedding was also my grandma's 78th birthday, so while we were there, we made our way to her house to celebrate. It was a great party as most of my mum's entire family was there, which doesn't happen often.

The birthday party reminded me of one of my fondest childhood memories, which was staying over at my grandparents' house on almost every weekend. I remember that every time I walked into my granny's bedroom--where I would sit for hours listening to her stories--I would smell the Yardley English Rose fragrance that she used to wear. And I would really, really love it.

Even now, every single time I visited her house (although she does not wear the same perfume anymore), I think that I can still smell the scent in my head. Frankly speaking, I suspect my unexplained fascination of English roses was cultivated by this memory somehow :).

Needless to say, this birthday card was made with the same inspiration--English roses. Yeah, yeah, I know, I've been creating so many rose-themed cards recently, but what can I say :), I really adore them.



The backing paper I used was one of my digital paper set, English Roses, which I finally finished designing after a month (yayyy!!). I printed the topper using a clip art from the digital set and cut out the circle using my Marvy Uchida Clever Lever circle punch. Then I adhered the circle on a punched-out scallop circle cut from recycled paper with my Woodware Scalloped Circle punch.


To finish off, I cut a piece of white printer paper with scalloped scissors and glued it on the backing paper, and stuck the topper on a 2.5" blue satin ribbon, which has been tied loosely to give a knotted effect.


Chic and simple, don't you think? Perfect for my beloved grandma :).

That's all for today; it's quite late now and my eyes are neither closed nor open, LOL. Tomorrow is a new day, hopefully with some good news on our house hunt. I'm off now and see you soon!!

Much love,
F

Happy Birthday Super Star!

Do you like sports? I don't. Wait--let me just rephrase that--I detest sports. My husband (or my poor, poor PE teacher back in the days) would have to either drag me by the feet or bribe me with a ridiculous amount of money just to get me into my trainers and burn some kilos. The closest thing to sports that you'd see me do is listening to the occasional snippets of World Cup 2010 coverage from the BBC's World Service (yep, I don't even like watching live sports on TV, LOL).

What I do like, though, are challenges. Just like when one of my cousins turned seven a few weeks ago, as it was the first time I created a birthday card for a boy.

I was browsing through my favorite craft shop--UrbanWrite--for ideas, when I came across this lively American Crafts' Junior patterned paper collection. Perfect for an active young fellow.

But what do you know, since I don't exactly adore sports, nor have I done any design with this theme, I didn't have any stamps or embellishments that would go with it. So as I got home, I only managed to sit still in front of my desk, doing nothing except for staring blankly at the cute patterned paper.

An idea popped into my head a couple of days later, irrelevant as it may be, when I was washing my hubby's Judogi (which is, by the way, an incredibly bulky uniform for judo, made from tremendously heavy fabric. Can you imagine how physically draining it is to hand-wash this thing?? Thank god he only practices once in a blue moon nowadays). I decided to make my own hand cut topper from a plain cardstock and embellish the card my self.

I cut a jersey-shaped topper from a red cardstock, adorned it with white stripes and a number "1" from plain printer paper, and stamped the name of the birthday boy on the jersey.


The topper turned out to complement the paper perfectly, but as I thought the card still looked pretty plain, I decided to make a mini "medal" that says 'Super Star'. Perfect for a star of any field!

I adhered the topper onto the patterned paper, and attached it on a red pre-folded cardstock with golden brads.

Although I must say I am quite proud of myself for creating this sporty card :), I do hope that one fine day something can change my mind about sports, that I'll be more active, that I'll be healthier and that at least I'll lose some weight :P. But for today, I guess this card will just have to do!

Much love,
F

CPS 173 - Woven Ribbon Birthday Card

Hello there!

I couldn't believe last week went by so fast, but what's worse is, now the weekend is almost over! Pheew! My husband and I went house hunting almost all of yesterday, so between doing the laundry, making Macaroni Casserole and cleaning up our second bedroom-cum-my craft studio, I have not been able to get my usual dose of crafting :(. It has also been raining cats and dogs here in Singapore for the past few days. This morning I woke up to the sound of a blazing thunderstorm, which, to my regret, has soaked all the clothes that I washed last night!!! Aaarghhh!!

As some of you probably know, the creative folks at Card Positioning Systems always release a new challenge every Saturday. Their sketch this week, CPS Sketch 173, is clean and simple--which is a style I quite like. Here's my take on the sketch:

It's my husband's birthday next week and since we're going away for the weekend, I thought of making a birthday card for him :). But since he poked around the studio when I was making this card, I think I may have to dismiss that idea and create a new card for his birthday now, LOL!

The original sketch included six ornamental squares at the side of the card, which I was going to create using patterned paper. But at the end, I decided to weave a piece of cream satin ribbon into the cardstock topper. I cut twelve slits on the bottom of the topper and wove two pieces of ribbon into the cuts; one piece from the right end and another from the left.

As a finishing touch, I tied the ends of the ribbon to a wooden ring that I bought at my local haberdashery store (which is a treasury for amazing cardmaking finds!!), and embellished the knot with a brown plastic button, tied with a piece of jute string.

Here's the list of materials I used for this card:

Cardstock: ArtFriend pre-cut cards
Topper: American Crafts AC Cardstock Caramel
Patterned Paper: SEI Poppy Espadrille
Stamp (for sentiment): Anna Griffin by All Night Media

Well, that's all the crafts for today and I'd better get back to doing the ironing now :(... Hope all of you had a great Saturday and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Much love,
F

Another Father's Day Card :)

I'm back with another Father's Day card!

As today is Father's Day, for this week's cardmaking challenge I made another special card for all dads in the world :).

Today's card is inspired by a sketch designed by the folks at the CPS blog, and I must admit, when I saw the sketch, I thought it was a bit challenging as I don't usually do asymmetrical layouts. Nevertheless, the sketch turned out to be really fun to work with, and although I intentionally left out the arrow element, I am quite satisfied with the design :).

Having the same theme in spirit, I also submitted this design for CardsforMen blog for their Father's Day challenge.

So what do you think of it?


I found a pre-folded cardstock at the bottom of my craft-supplies drawer, which was handy because its baby-blue color matched the feel of the patterned papers that I used. The patterned papers were from my digital paper pack collection, For His Eyes Only, which will be listed on Etsy soon. Follow FebruaryLane on Twitter if you want an update of when it's listed :)

I was also excited about the sketch because it had a circle element, which meant I could use my new Woodware scalloped circle punch :) :). I bought the punch when I went to the UK three weeks ago, but I have yet to find the chance to create anything with it.

I used the scalloped circle punch to make the recycled-paper base for the topper, which I printed on an ivory 80 gsm parchment paper. The image is of an antique beetle car that I had edited using CorelDraw with oil pastel effect. I used jute strings (I know, I know, I use too much jute in my designs) to tie the topper to the patterned paper and adhered them on the baby blue blank card.

Okay, that's all for today, I really have to go to the library and return a book before I get fined :). Wishing all of you a great Father's Day and hope that you can celebrate this special day with a man who is very dear to you!!