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