Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones. This year, I feel extremely blessed as I have my mom here with me. The last time I get to celebrate Christmas with her was in 1998. The downfall of being so far away. :( She did come to the States several  times and I went back to Indonesia several times, too in between, but it wasn't on Christmas time.

So, this year, I am so thankful to have her here with me. It means the world to me to be able to celebrate Christmas with my mom. I believe the greatest blessing of Christmas is to be able to celebrate it with people you love. I have my mom, my loving husband, and my amazing in-laws  and our Christmas was awesome.

My mom cooked a bunch of delicious Indonesian food. Everybody is still talking about her cooking. Yes... it was that GOOD!! The funny thing was, the next day my husband cooked her some snow crabs and she said that was better than the Christmas dinner. And, I look at her, what?? She said, the Indonesian food is just normal for her, but the snow crabs are special. Just loved her. My husband felt like a hero with that comment.

I do miss my brothers and wish they could be here with us. But, here's to next year. Hopefully, we can be all together next Christmas. And to all of you, I wish you all the very best and may Christmas joy stay with you everyday. Hugs....

Vera

Disneyworld Trip

Hello there... Sorry, I am slacking big time on my post. Went on a week vacation to Disneyworld with my husband and my mom. I don't get to take my mom travelling that often, so I love it when I get a chance to do so.

We had a blast. Magic Kingdom was crazy packed (went there on Saturday). Literally after the parade, you can barely walk. We were packed like a sardine. :) We also tried the air balloon on downtown Disney. That was awesome. We got up to 400 feet and had an amazing view of Orlando.

As you can expected, being away for a week, and come back to piles of work, I haven't really start on my Christmas card. Nothing like last minute card making, right? If I am lucky, all my friends will receive their Christmas card by New Year. Haha... I am working on it as we speak.

Meanwhile, here's some pictures from our trip. Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs,
Vera

Daily Giveaway at Created by JB

Hi y'all. How's your weekend? Mine is a bit rough. This past Friday, in Houston we have the rare occassion where we got some snows. Just one day. But, that's enough to make lots of people sick. Including my husband. The drastic weather change just crazy. He came down with a cold and then, our two dogs got into an "arguement", with one ended up with eye injury. I was freaked out when I came home and saw my baby's eye all puffy and red. She looks like she's been in a boxing ring. Hopefully she doesn't have any infection and will be okay. Oh yeah, on top of it all, we're scheduled to go on vacation this coming Thursday.

So, husband is all wiped out from medicine and poor Ollie snuggling with him. I am hoping that both we'll be okay for our vacation. I am not feeling the best myself and been taking vitamins and all prevention to keep me from getting sick, too. What a weekend...

On a brighter note... How about some giveaway?? Have you get a chance to stop by Jenn Biederman's blog? She's doing a huge giveaway. She will choose one lukcy person to receive some of her favorite goodies from Hero Arts & Purple Onion Designs + a card & ATC made by hers.  You do not want to miss it. There's LOTS of goodies. You can check out all the details here: Created by JB

Anyhoo, just want to share the giveaway news with you. Hope you get to check her blog and I wish you all good luck. Have a great Sunday everyone. Stay warm and don't get sick. :)

Vera

Mojo Monday 115

Hi y'all.... How was your Thanksgiving? My mom arrived here safely after 30 hours of flight from Indonesia. Yep, it's along flight to go half way around the world. After a few days of jet lag, she managed to get a pretty normal sleeping hours. Thank goodness, I don't have to cook as we celebrated Thanksgiving at my SIL. We had 2 turkeys and there's only 9 of us. Didn't even get to eat the ham as we were too full.

As with card, I haven't get a chance to make many cards with my mom here. I think I was shopped out as I took her shopping 2 days in a row. :) I was pooped and by Sunday, I just want to lay down and be lazy. Today, back to reality, back to work, and I managed to squeeze in a little card making. Make me feel that I am productive, even if it's only 1 card.

Here's my take on Mojo Monday week 115 challenge. Can you see I am a bit addicted to this stamp set? And yes, I still love the glitters. My husband keep calling this "the chicken" and I keep correcting him, "No, it's a bird." Hah... Well, here's the chicken birdie for you. :) Have a great week everyone.

Vera

Square card...

I made this card for Sweet Sunday Sketch. Not quite sure how I like this square cards. I think I should have adjusted the size, like making it a bit smaller. Feels like there's too much empty space. I was rushing, too when I took this pic as I was trying to submit it before the dateline, which I missed, BTW. :( I didn't get to play with my camera setting or the card placement, so didn't really caught all the glitters on the embossed snowflake. And the blue background also have soft star patterns that I embossed with irridescent sparkle powder.

Well, it's Friday. Yay... and my mom will be here from Indonesia in 2 days!! Hmm..., blog might get neglected a bit. :) Hope not, I'll do my best to keep it up. I don't get to see my mom that often, so I plan to do quite a few things with her, please keep checking in, will you. On that note... have a super duper happy Friday y'all.

Vera

Winner of cards giveaway...

I compiled all the names and had my husband picked from the basket. The lucky winner is.... drumroll.... (I'm such a nerd)... is NANCY!!! Congratulations, Nancy!

Nancy, please email me your address. You can email me at: wirianta@hotmail.com . I will mail you the cards as soon as I receive your information. :)

Thank you all for participating and am looking forward to do another giveaway in near future. BTW, I've been playing with more glitters and I found out if you color (the back of the stamped image) the acetate first with the same color ofyour glitters, then put the glossy accent, then the glitters, you'll get a deeper color. It might not look much when you first color the acetate (I just used my ZIG pens), but you'll see the difference when you're finish putting the glitters.

I will update today's blog later this evening as I haven't get a chance to take picture yet, to show you what I am talking about. So, come back again later this evening, will you. Hugs to everyone. :)

UPDATE: So, sorry, last night I couldn't find the camera. I took this pic early this morning before heading to work. You could see the penguin on the left has darker color, cause I colored the penguins before I added the glitters. TFL .:)

Vera

Becoming a US Citizen

Yep... it's official, today I become a US citizen along with 1398 other people from 104 countries. It's amazing to think we all from so many different countries and today we all become one as US citizen. It was a memorable experience.

My mom congratulated me and reminded me not to forget my birth country or language. I did get teary eyes when I read that. I love where I came from. I am proud of  the rich cultures that Indonesia offers. I appreciate my upbringing there. Being raised in Indonesia and moved here to the US as adult, make me able to appreciate the goodness from both sides of the world. Like what the speaker said the traditions and cultures that we learned at our birth country will always stay with us eventhough we change citizenship. We will honor that tradition and at the same time we welcome the new tradition of our new country. I'd want our children to learn and to honor both the Indonesian and the American traditions.

What a big day. :) So many emotions. With that note, I want to thank everybody who has stopped by here to check my blog. I'll pick up a winner for my cards tomorrow morning. Happy humpday!!

Vera

Glittery giveaway...

Continue from my post, yesterday. Not sure how often I will make the glittery cards with acetate though. They're fun, but takes a long time, especially with all the details and sprinkling. However, I did managed to make 4 sets of the penguin sparkles (see previous entry). :)

Here's card # 2:

How to:

1. Cut blue and green cardstock for background. Again, I use my favorite embossing design, the dots from Cuttlebug.

2. That shiny green with dots strip is from KI Memories papers and I just cut a strip. You can also use ribbon.

3. Stamped the image (from Hero Arts) on white cardstock and on acetate using Ancient Page inkpad. Make sure you use inkpad  that wouldn't smear. On  the image on white cardstock, I colored the background with blue chalks for soft sky color.

4. Flip the acetate as you'll work on the backside of the stamped image. Cover the frame using glossy accent and sprinkle with pink glitter powder. Tap excess and also it's helpful to use brush to get rid of stubborn powder.

5. Cover the branch using the same step and sprinkle with green glitter powder and do the same with  the ornament (I used blue glitter powder).

6. After all dry, attached to stamped white cardstock, layer it to pink cardstock and attach to background.

7. Attached stamped snowflake using pop dots and of course, highlight the snowflake with stickles for extra glitter. :) Oh yes, I also dots stickles randomly on the embossed dots. It didn't show on the picture, but in real life this card is very sparkling.

Card # 3:

How to:

Same as the previous card. This time background is red and green cardstock. The main difference is the use of liquid applique (I have a hard time finding this item, but when you do it's only like $2.99). It came in liquid form and when you heat it up, it swell into this wonderful texture that looks just like snow. I mix the irridescent embossing powder with the liquid applique before I heat it up, but the parkle didn't show to well. So, I used glossy accent on  top of it and sprinkle with blue glitter powder. Do the same thing to the brach.

Note: when you use liquid applique use it sparingly as when you heat it up, if you put too much it will looks like globs. I just dots here and there on the branch for this look.

So, what do you think? Do you like it, do you  have any other suggestion, question? Leave your comment here by Wednesday eve and on Thursday, I'll pick a winner and I'll send you one of the card that I posted today and yesterday and another surprise card. This would be my first giveaway. Nothing big or fancy, just sharing my cards. Thank you for checking my blog.

Hugs,

Vera

Glitters...

My desk is covered with glitters. This week Hero Arts' challenge is using glitters and their blog inspired me to use my acetate inventory. Boy, did I have fun. I made 3 cards using this technique. Today, I put the step-by-step instruction to make the 1st card. Tomorrow, I'll post the instruction for the 2nd & 3rd cards. Hehe... that way I have excuse to update my blog. :)

1st card:

1. Cut blue and green cardstock for background. I used cuttlebug to do  the dots embossing on the blue background. Add ribbons (I tucked one end behind the blue, green cardstock) and gemstone.

2. The fun part! Stamped penguins on white cardstock and on acetate. I used Ancient Page inkpad.

3. Flip the acetate, as you'll be working on the wrong side or the backside of the stamped image. Cover the are around the peguin using glossy accent and sprinkle the green glitter powder. Repeat and sprinkle the pink glitter powder. Last, repeat and sprinkle the blue glitter powder.

4. For the mount underneath the peguin I used Stardust Stickles. Note: if you're using the glossy accent and glitter powders, you don't have to wait long as it dries after just a few minutes. The stickles take longer.

5. Once everything dry, cut around the lacy circle, attached to the stamped white cardstock. The reason I did this, sometime when you stamped on acetate it's not all even (or maybe I am not experience enough) and the stamped image on white cardstock act as reinforcement. Besides, I like the white frame.:)

6. Now, just layer it up. Attached the white cardstock to blue cardstock, then attached those to pink cardstock, and last to soft green cardstock.

7. Using pop dots attached the layered image to the card. Voila... you're done.

You can see the other cards here and instruction for those cards tomorrow. Phew.... I think I did well this week. Although, my desk looks like fairies war zone with all the glitters. :) Hah..., I love it though when creativity just flow.

How about giveaway? I never do one before. Leave your comment for this card and the other cards (when I post it tomorrow) by Wednesday eve and on Thursday, I'll pick a winner and you'll receive one of the card as my thanks to you for stopping by my blog.

That's it for today and may your Sunday be a sparkly one. :)

Vera

Citizenship & Hero Arts Glitter Challenge

First thing first... Yay, I just passed my citizenship test and next week is my citizenship ceremony. I will officially become a US citizen!! I answered all the test question correctly, including who wrote the Declaration of Independence? Name 3 of the original 13 colonies, etc. Am excited. A bit sad, too. I am very proud of where I come from. And in my heart I will always love my birth country. But, I don't see myself going back  there to live. For vacation, of course and to visit my family. It just felt like I'm letting go part of myself by changing nationality. I  think as far as culture and all the positive things from my culture, will always be part of me and I am hoping that when I have kids I can raise them to appreciate both the Eastern and the Western cultures. My swearing is next Wednesday!!!

Now, let's talk card. I love glitters! I think I used glitter on almost all my cards. They add just the perfect details to cards. This week, HA challenge is all about glitters. So, of course I have to play along. :)

Again, I am using Hero Arts Warm Wishes set. I opted for simple card. I covered the lacy round frame with stickles glitters and did the same for  the scarf and the frame for the greetings. And for the background, I stamped random snowflakes and embossed them with irridescent embossing powders. And for fun detail, if you see closely under the penguin, for the snow mount I used Liquid Aplique, so it looks like he stands on real snow highlighted with a little sparkly.

I am still learning to take better pictures, but in real life this card is really fun and very sparkly. :)

Well, that's an achievement for me to actually posted 2 cards this week. Hopefully I can play some more.  Hugs...

Vera

Mojo Monday 111

I love this week Mojo Monday sketch. And I am glad I get to play this week. It's been awhile since I get to do any sketch. I've been sick a lot and on top of that doing lots of home improvement. So, I am super duper excited to make some cards. Okay, okay, so far it just 1card. :) Here you go.

The stamp is from Hero Arts. I love penguins, so this li'l fella is perfect for me. Beside Mojo Monday, I am also doing this for Hero Arts color combo challenge. Please let me know what you think. Short blog for now. Trying to get more card done and getting ready for my mom's visit from Indonesia.

My mom will be here in 2 weeks (I'm counting the days) and she'll stay with us for a couple months. That means I get to eat some good, yummy Indonesian food. That's it for today and hope you're getting ready for an awesome week ahead.

Vera

Owl card

Yay.... card!! I finally have a card to post! :) It's been awhile, isn't it? I made this card for my husband who's thoughtfulness continue to make me feel so lucky and blessed to have him.

I used the stamp set CL309 from Hero Arts. Love the owl. For the eyes I used tiny black beads. Then I hand cut all the hearts for the tree and popped some of them on pop dots to make them stand out. Covered all the heart with stickles. Can't do heart without the glitters! So, what do you think?

I really need to start working on Christmas card. How time flies, it's almost November! Yikes... Really, really hoping I can get back on making a bunch of cards again. I still dizzy all the time and going to have my eyes check out tomorrow to see if maybe that's the cause. If not, then on to next check. I swear I am making the doctor rich this year. :(

Well, that's all for now people. Have a great evening. Hugs....

Vera

In My Room...

That's the title of my brother's latest book  that he launched on Oct. 22, 2009 in Jakarta, Indonesia. I am so very proud of him. For this book he photographed about 100 famous, influential people from Indonesia in their most personal space. Some of the people, are the people that I grew up reading about in magazines or newspapers. And here, they allowed my brother into their very private place to show a glimpse of their  life behind the door. That's just so awesome!
When I see my brother, I don't see him as the famous photographer that everybody's talking about. Instead I see the guy who works hard (and play hard) to get what he wants. The one who believes in my creativity and talent even when I questioned myself. I see the guy who knows how to enjoy life, who has huge sense of humor and definitely the one person who can look at me and make me laugh without saying a word.  Most of all, I just see my little brother and my mom's baby boy. Granted he's taller than me, but he's still my little brother. :) I am without a doubt is my brother biggest fan and supporter.

So, this blog today is dedicated to my brother, Jerry, to let him know how proud I am of him and all that he has achieved. You can check out  his blog here at Jerry Aurum. If you click on his blog banner you can also see his previous blogs & photos.

He has lots of awesome photos, from landscape, to animal, to human emotion, he tried it all. He's my source of inspiration. For me, his photography is more than just picture. They tell stories. Some makes you laugh, some makes you think, some just simply takes your breath away because of their beauties. Like his underwater and travel pictures, may of them just simply breathtaking. I could stare at them for hours. He also has a fan page on facebook where he also posted quite a  few of his work. So, please check it out when you have a chance.

And Jerry, here's to you. Hope you continue touching people's life through your art and creation. Well, that's all for today and please keep checking back. :) Hope you have a great week.

Vera

Bookworm

Hi there people. How are you all doing. I know I have been such a slacker lately. Once you're out of the swing of things, kind of hard getting back into it. :) Still trying to figure out what's really wrong with my health, but live goes on. While I was down, I use it as a chance to start reading again. I LOVE reading. Since my brother introduced me to adventure books when I was in 3rd grade, I've become a book lover.

Recently, my SIL and my niece were raving about the Fableheaven book. So, I start reading that since I love Harry Potter type of books. Then, in the middle of reading that, my niece started to read Percy Jackson & The Olympians, saying it's even better than Fableheaven.

So, that's what I've been doing this past month. Even in good days, when I feel okay, instead of making cards, I've been reading like crazy. There's 4 books in Fableheaven series so far and 5 on Percy Jackson. I am on the hunt for Percy Jackson last book. And I think after that, I can go back to my card making. :)

Been trying to scrapbook, too, but scrapbooking is a slow process for me, since I keep changing my mind of what paper I want to use. I am t rying to branch out, but I keep coming back to my clean and simple style. Anyhooo... enough babbling, I will post card this week for sure. Thanks for stopping by. Have a great Monday!!!

Hello there...

Yes, I am still alive and breathing! My poor blog been neglected and I haven't made any cards lately. Sigh.... not that I don't want to.

See, I've been sick a lot this past month. Finally, one dr said that I tested positive to have stomach bacteria and gave me a bunch of antibiotic. First of all, I am not a fan of taking medicine. I grew up with my mom giving me natural remedy or Chinese herbal stuff.

Well, right on the day for my husband's 40th surprise b'day party, I had pretty severe reaction to the meds I was taking. My head felt like it's being squeezed and my whole jaw, ears just in pain. I was curled up in a ball crying. Hubby thought we're just going to his sister house for a visit and was ready to cancel going there seeing my condition. Of course, I couldn't let that happen. My father-in-law flew all the way from Illinois to surprise him. Anyhow, we made it to the party and hubby was very happy with his surprise. And thank you Joy, Les, and Billy for sharing this moment with us.

Come next day, which was hubby's real birthday, my condition worsen. Start to puke and went back to the dr, although I swear this one dr just want my copay and could careless that I am puking allover the place. Long story short, had to cancel hubby's birthday dinner. SORRY HONEY!!! :(

I decided to stop the meds and figure out different way to deal with my healt issue. My brother-in-law knows a great herbalist, so I might check that out. Keeping my fingers crossed that soon I don't have to deal with feeling nauseous all the time.

Meanwhile, please bear with me and I hope you will keep checking back to my  blog. I know you'd like  to see new creations and believe me I want to play, too. I would like to start making Christmas cards, so let's hope that my body will cooperate and I can get well soon. Thank you for stopping by. :)

Mojo Monday Week 105

Hi there. Did anyone miss me?? I hope so... :) Sorry that I haven't been really good at updating my blog lately.  I have some health issue lately that I spent lots of my free time just laying on the coach. The medicine that my doctor prescribed me has side effect that cause severe drowsiness. I actually tend to just take half of the dose just so I can at least stay awake and finish house chores.

Anyhoo.... I am hoping that I can get back to normal again. I hate being sick. I feel like my time get wasted when I'm sick. :)

First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTEN!! She's my lovely sister-in-law. An awesome knitter and super cool gal. For her birthday, I  made an 8x8 album in the shortest time ever! See, I've been wanting to make an album for her birthday, but I kept procrastinating. Never quite decide on what type of album or what size, etc. Then on Wednesday evening myhusband told me that Thursday evening we need to go to Kristen's place to surprise her for her birthday. I was like, whattt??? It's tomorrow? Panic!! Look at the stack of pics that I want to use and low and behold, survival instict came up. I do work quite well under pressure. LOL....

Pretty much finish  putting together the album in 3,5 hours. Thank goodness for my Cricut! Make decorating a snap. And my week just get better. I made a pretty cute card for Mojo Monday Week 105. Yay... Here's the card. Let me know what you think. Thank you for stopping by and I'll try to update the blog at least once a week. Have a great weekend!

Taylored Expression Birthday Bash 2

I made another card for Taylored Expression birthday challenge. Again, I combine several challenges in 1. I thought it would be fun to see how many challenge can I combine in 1 card. Break my record, 4 challenges in 1. For details of each challenges click on Taylored Expression birthday bash icon on the side bar.

For Denise's chellenge, I love the colors on the picture. The pink, orange, and brown combination just looks so cool. Then the sketch is from Karen Giron. The buttons border is inspired by Sankari and the faux stitching plus the button stitching is part of Jackie's challenge. I'm embarassed to say that I do have sewing machine, but I honestly don't quite know how to use it. :) I will learn it soon!!

OK, short post today. Don't want hubby to feel ignored. Hehe... been spending my weekend  playing with my stamps. Hope you like the card. Let me know what you think. Happy Labor day....

Taylored Expression Birthday Bash

Exciting time at Taylored Expression this weekend! To celebrate their one year anniversary they hosted an all day event with 13 challenges that you can enter to win some cool prizes. For detail please check their blog here.

They have some really fun challenges. I decided to combine several of the challenges into 1 card. This is the card that I came up with.

I followed the skecth provided by Laura. Then I did the butterfly using the paper tole challenge by Dawn. This is where you stamped the image 3 times, cut and popped the image a couple times with pop dots. I use my thin pop dots as I don't want my card to get too bulky.  The overall soft colors is inspired by Sharon Harnist challenge.

There you go 3 challenges in one. I did use button and inked the edges of the white cardstock for some distressing (these are two other challenges), but for the button challenge you have to use at least 3 buttons and I just think 3 buttons would be too much for this  card. And for the distressing, I don't think there's enough distressing on this card to be consider for that challenge. :)

Well, I don't know if I can do all 13 challenges. 3 down 10 more to go. If you'd like to join you still have plenty of time. You can win prizes for each challenge! Enjoy the rest of your labor day weekend!!

Fox card & Nick our boy

My goodness, time flies... Can't believe it's already September. Fall is almost here. That means cooler weather and the holidays season just around the corner. It's been one heck of a hot summer here in Texas, so I am for one excited for the cooler temperature to come.

Speaking of fall, what ya' think of this card? I don't use orange color that often. But, for a manly card, I think this one is perfect. This card is for Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge from Karen Giron's blog and for Hero Arts.  By the way, Karen also the one who designed my leaf signature logo. If you'd like to get one for yourself, you can check out her blog here.

And that handsome boy that you see below the card, that's my Nick, the inspiration for the card. He's a sheltie, but with his short haircut right now, he looks like a fox. :) Love that boy. Nick is a rescued dog and I think he just so grateful that my husband adopted him back then, that he always give us that grateful, loving look. And he's very protective of us, too. Nick has a girlfriend, Ollie, our pug and I'll talk about her some other time. She's one of a kind, too.

Well fellas, thanks for stopping by and please drop me a line while you're here. Have a great sunshiny day!!

Yummy goodness

I started this week with a pretty bad back ache. I pretty much spent my Sunday just laying on a heat pad. And my thoughtful husband, spoiled me by bringing me my favorite ice cream of all time. Coffee flavored ice cream mixed with a little bit of avocado. :) It's probably sounds weird, but it's yummy goodness.

Yep, in Indonesia we don't have guacamole, but we use avocado for desserts. A lot of the ice cream place would have different variation of mixing ice cream with avocado. Some place even serve it layered with chocolate syrup and some peanut sprinkles. Because I grew up with avocado as dessert, I still haven't get use to eat avocado with my meals. But, if you're adventurous with food, try this mix for dessert. :) You can use either vanilla, chocolate, or coffee ice cream. You might like it.

Well, luckily by the next day, my back is getting better and I was able to sit down long enough to make a couple cards. Here's the 1st card for Mojo Monday challenge, which I also combined with Hero Arts challange. I use Rangers liquid pearl for the hearts.

Hope you like it and now I have to go do some research for vacation place to go in October. Am thinking of going to North Carolina. Any ideas for what to see or where to go? Drop me a line and thanks for stopping by.

Relaxation

Happy Sunday everyone... This past week been great for me, in a card sense. :) I made 3 cards and enter 4 challenges. That was fun!

See, my work is fast pace and I always have to focus to make sure all orders go out correctly and on time. When I get home, I often feels like my mind still going 100 miles an hour and it's all about work. I try knitting and reading to help me unwind. But, nothing works like playing with my papers and stamps.

The moment I deal with papers and stamps, it's like my mind immediately winding down from stress to happy. I think because it makes my mind switch from serious to all about being creative, which is what I love.

For me, the whole creative process is relaxing. I am surrounded with colors, images that I love, creative inspirations, all things that I love.

Below is another card that I came up with during my relaxation mode. :) I'm following the sketch from Stamping Bella blog. Stamp is Suzette Ketto and Hero Arts. At first, I am not sure how I feel about the distress look. But as I take picture of the card, it kind of grow on me. Sometime you just see things when you look at it from behind the lens. Well, I hope you like the card.

That's all for now. I am out with back pain and ready to just chilled out and let my back heal. May your Sunday be a happy one filled with joy & sunshine!

Mojo Monday Week 101

Woohoo... first time for me to be able to join a few challenges in one week. First, I did the caardvark challenge, then Hero Arts, then today the Mojo Monday challenge. Actually, for all the cards that I made this week they were combination of 2 challenges in one.

The pink card on my previous post were combination of Caardvark & Hero Arts challenges and this one here is combination of Mojo Monday & Hero Arts. Can you see a pattern here? :) I just love Hero Arts. Not only because of their awesome products, but they have fun challenges and the ladies on Hero Arts Flickr group are so awesome and supportive.

The stamp I use for this card is Suzette Ketto. I have to thanks Mindy from Stamping Bella group who's so kind to mail me Suzette's images. I only have a few of Ketto stamps and Suzette is not one of them. Mindy completely brighten my day by sending me quite a few Suzette image to play with. Thanks, Mindy!!

I colored the images using Prismacolor pencils and Copic Ciao markers. Add some glitters and use the liquid pearl for those little dots. Love this cheerful looking card. I think I'll send this to my mom. Hope you like the card and if you stop by please let me know what you think. Thanks for stopping by.

Caardvark challenge

This would be my first time joining the caardvark challenge. The challenge is to create a card using white, black, and pink color combo. Not my typical color, but that's what I love about challenge, it makes you step out of your comfort zone and try something new.

This is the card that I came up with. Pretty simple, but I think it's still pretty eye catching. :) The two birds in the middle are layered on pop-dots for that extra dimension.

Sometimes it's fun to do simple cards. For me simple card help showing the main image more, ya' know... And another thing, I create this card totally by using my scraps. Hehe... part of my effort to clean my table. Well, short one for today as I have loads of stuff to do. Thank you for stopping by and hope your Monday is good.

New stamps collection...

I went to Michael's yesterday and was like a kid in the candy store when I saw the new stamps collection they have. They have a bunch of new stamps from Recollection and Hampton Arts. The price is so reasonable and even better that I get  to use their 50% off coupon. Yay... score!!!

I've been stamping since '97 and have quite a bit of a collection. Not that big of a collection, in my opinion, but I did notice that I need some more new stamps. Hampton Arts has what they call the foot long collection and they are awesome. Lots of stamps in one set. Very versatile. I have my heart sets on several stamps, so it will required several trips to Michael's. But, hey, shopping is part of the joy, right? :)

Anyhoo..., with my new set of stamp, I use it for the greeting for this card. The bird stamp is from Stampin Up! collection. Lots of layers on this card. My coworker said she wants something that kind of manly. I am a girly girl, so this is the closest thing I came up with in short notice. I think it's quite manly, because of the colors I chose. What ya' think?? All image is colored with the awesome Copic markers.

Well, I am ready to start my weekend. Hope your weekend is a great one filled with lots of things that make you happy. Happy Friday....

49th Anniversary...

This Thursday, my in-laws are celebrating their 49th wedding anniversary. Wow... 49 YEARS!! That's so awesome and I am in awe of them. Seems like in this day and age not that many couple go this far. I can only hope that my own marriage will follow their example.

My in-laws are very loving, thoughtful, and wonderful. I am actually excited whenever we get to see them. I am very blessed that both my husband and I love each other in-laws. Hehe... my husband even thought that I should get my mom move from Indonesia and live with us.

Well, during dinner last week, my father-in-law whispered to me and asked me to make an anniversary card for him. Hah... on top of it he said if his wife ask me to make a card, too, to say no that I don't have time. Sneaky, LOL. :) The card below is what I came up with.

So, today's blog is dedicated to my awesome parent-in-laws. Together they have raised 5 children, have 6 grandchildren (plus 1 coming soon), and now they're just enjoying life. I am definitely thankful to them for my husband. My husband is one of the most loving, thoughtful person I know. Thanks Mom, Dad for raising such a kind, loving son. I am so blessed to be part of their family.

The card was so much fun to make. Did you see the grass? Yep, I glued the fibers one by one. And to create the dew look, I put some stickles glitter randomly on the grass. Funny, how I could be so impatient on certain things, but I can patiently glue tiny stuff for cards and actually enjoy the process. The card with the adorable hedgehog is our card for my in-laws. My husband and I have an African pigmy hedgehog as a pet, so I love using hedgehog stamp (Penny Black has awesome line of hedgehog stamps).

Mom, Dad, if you're reading this (which I know you would, since I told you so.. hehe..), HAPPY ANNIVERSARY with lots of love...

That's all folks, may your relationship with your other half be as happy and fulfilling...

 

Hero Arts Challenge

Hi everyone. Sorry I haven't been able to post much last week and this week. Just have quite a few things going on.

Anyhooo, I am trying to do more Hero Arts challenge. Just ordered quite a few Hero Arts stamps, hopefully I'll get it by next week. I actually enjoy the shopping as much as actually using the stamps. LOL... I would just get so excited browsing the stamping store online or my favorite shopping place, Ebay! I have to thank Ebay in helping me building up my stamps collection. :)

Well, here's the cards that I made for Shari's Hero Art sketch challenge. There's 4 sketch available and I did 2 of them.

On the birdie card I am trying out Jennifer McGuire's teachnique from her inking class. After I color the birdie, I spread some stickles glitter with my fingers. It gives the bird this pretty soft glitters. I stamped the bird twice and cut the second one around the body and attached it with pop-dots.



For the owl card, I used a glossy paper & colored it with brayer to create the soft blue color, then stamped the owl on top of it. Used the Ranger's Pearl for the heart and add Stickles glitter to the swirls, thr bird house roof top, and the hearts.



I love making cheerful, bright cards lately. What kind of card you've been making lately? Please share. That's it for now and may your weekend be a great one! Cheers...

Hero Arts Digital Stamps

So far I actually haven't done much of digital stuff. Yes, I like to play with my pictures and all, but I really haven't create any page or card that's totally digital. I guess, I am what they call hybrid scrapbooker? :)

I use bits and pieces of digital image here and there to make embellishment for my page. I like to actually feel and touch the stuff I use for my page. I do love using fonts and digital images. I just haven't get to the point of creating the whole pages digitally. Well, now Hero Arts is starting to go into digital stamping. So, I decided to give it a try.

You can get their digital kit from Two Peas In A Bucket and they even have a few available for free, so you can give it a try. The words background that I use for my card is free and I printed it in several different sizes, so I'll have plenty to work with. I think the ability to resize the image to any size you want, is definitely one of the coolest perk of digital stamping. And that means more option from 1 single image, no need to buy a bunch of stuff, and no storage space needed. Yay..., since I am running out of storage space. :)

For my card below, after I print it, I colored it with chalks to create the soft colors. Then I stamped the Stamping Bella owls, colored it with copic markers, cut it, and attached it to the background with pop-dots.

Yippe ya yei... my first card using digital stamp. I think it's a super duper cute card.... if I may say so myself. :) I am in love with these owls, too. Well, hope you enjoy it and may your day be a good one.

Vera

Star struck...

OMG, I was star struck. On my previous entry, the Jennifer McGuire and the Laura Vegas left a comment. These two ladies are my scrapbook idols. Others could have American Idol, but I have scrapbook idol. Heh... I was like, wow, they looked at my blog and they even left a comment. :) That cheered up my day. I love, love Jennifer & Laura. They have clean design that reflect my taste in scrapbooking! One of this day I will make more pages.

OK, I just had to talk about my star struck moment. :) Now, let's talk about cards. When I make cards, I usually just go with the flow. I rarely plan my card. I would design it as I go. But nowadays, I've been getting more and more into following a sketch. At first, I was hesitant, now I love it.

This owls card is following the sketch from Stamping Bella. I chose bright colors and aren't the owls sooo adroable? How could you not smile when you see this owls? I think this card is one of my favorite from all the cards that I've been making.

I hope you love the owls as much as I do and hope it makes you smile. That's all for today folks, I have to get ready for the work week. Here hopes that this week will be a good one for everyone. Cheers...

Vera

Mojo Monday Challenge

I just found the Mojo Monday blog last week and boy, do they have lots of good sketch. So, I decided to give it a try and join the fun. For me, following a sketch can be easy and other times can be difficult. It really depends on how I feel about the sketch. When I saw this week sketch, I knew immediately that I want to try it.

The fun part of following a sketch is to see how others interpret it. And also in a way, it stimulates your mind, getting you to start thinking of what you can make with that sketch. Here's my interpretation of Mojo Monday week 97 sketch. This bird from Inkadinkado is currently one of my favorite stamp to use. I colored it with Prismacolor markers and highlighted the circles and the wings with Stickles. The flower flourish corner stamp is also from Inkadinkado. Greetings is from Hero Arts.

I am excited to join the Mojo Monday challenge for the first time. Please let me know what you think and thank you for stopping by.

Happy hump day... :)

Vera

Beautiful Blogger Award & I {HEART} Hero Arts...

Wow, my first blog award! I just received Beautiful Blogger Award courtesy of Monika. I met through Hero Arts Flick group. Thank you so much for thinking of me, Monika. I really appreciate your kindness. :) You can check out her works on her blog, here.

Now, it's my turn to present this award to others. I choose to give this award to these ladies that always inspire me with their creation. They're super talented and never cease to amaze me with their creativity and ideas. They are my source of inspiration:

Lucy

Jennifer

Laura

Speaking about inspiration, I want to also mention Hero Arts. Every year they come out with great products that help me in creating fun stuff. So, I am joining the I {HEART} Hero Arts blog hopper to show them how much I love their products.

I might be late in joining the hop. I was gonna do this earlier, but was down with bad case of allergy. Anyway, here's the card that I made for this occasion. All stamps by Hero Arts.Thank you all for stopping by. Here's to a great week ahead...

Vera

A bit of history...

Scrapbooking and stamping are my passion. The times I spent doing these are so enjoyable. I always play with my pictures for as long as I can remember. In high school, I would cut it into different shapes and glue it to whatever cardstock available. I am always interested in pictures. I guess it runs in the family. My mom keep all our pictures organized in albums and she keep all the negatives, too, which I organized chronologically. Then, my younger brother is an amazing photographer. I think he started playing with my mom camera since he was a toddler. He takes wonderful, artistic images. You can check out his blog here. I will do a post on my brother soon, cause he's my inspiration.

After I moved to the States, my friend introduced me to Creative Memories and to Stampin Up!. Then for 5 years I taught scrapbooking and card making classes. I love teaching and sharing my ideas. Close to the end of 2003, I entered the designer team call from Simply Sentiments and to my excitement they chose me to join their first design team. For a year, I got to work with some very talented ladies and have my works published in the magazines. Now, I am making cards for myself and also for orders. I usually get orders from friends and family. I don't advertise, it all based from recommendation system.

I can honestly say stamping & scrapbooking are the 2 hobbies that I will love doing for the rest of my life. Both activities allow me to express myself and I feel so much joy in making them, in seeing people's reaction when they see or receive them. My brother told me I should gone to design school and I really wish I had listen to him. :)

So, that's a bit of history of how I got into these fun hobbies. Sure hope that my cards will continue bringing joy and happiness to others. Speaking of bringing joy, how about a bright, cheerful card that for sure will brighten someone's day...

I posted this card on my flickr account and seems like it's one of the card that get viewed quite a bit. The stamp is from Hampton Art (love this birdie stamp), cardstock from Bazzill, and the greeting is from Hero Arts "Thoughtful Messages" set. It didn't show too well on the picture, but the birds wings has some pearl accents and outlined with stickles.

Please let me know what you think of the card. Thanks so much for stopping by.

Vera

Busy week...

I can't believe it's almost the end of July already. Time flew by so fast. This past couple of weeks been so hectic for me. I feel like my mind going 100 miles a minute with all the list of things to do. We're running on skeleton crew right now, so basically I am handling the whole purchasing department by myself. Kind of crazy. Love it, but crazy. :)

Anyhow, lately I tend to make cards instead of doing what I really should be doing, which is scrapbooking. I have tons of pictures to do, but often making cards just so much easier and give me instant gratification. Sigh... so many things to do, so little time.

Anyway, I did make quite a few cards. I am posting 2 here today and the rest for another day. Hehe... don't want to run out of card to post.

The birdie card is part of Hero Arts monochromatic challenge. Iused Hero Arts "Thoughtful Messages" set and the bird is from Inkadinkado. These 2 companies are my favorite stamping companies. They have good design and Hero Arts is also one of those green company. I highlighted the bird with Rangers Stickles. The Ketto card is part of Stamping Bella challenge. Colored the stamped image with Copic Ciao. Best marker out there.

Well that's it for today and thank you for stopping by. Hope you all have a great week.

Vera

Blog candy...

Wow, check this out. Northern Papercarft is hosting their first retreat. Check out their blog here . They're giving away a set of Copic Ciao. How awesome is that to win that set?

I am still at work, so that's all I have for today.:) Thank you for stopping by.

Vera

Hero Arts week...

Well, I am still waiting to get my internet hook up at work. Feel like I am in the stone age without the internet. My super cool boss, told me to go ahead work from home this morning. I am working. Trust me. Just taking a quick break, to update the blog real quick, otherwise I probably get distracted and start doing other things.;)

I received my new Hero Arts stamp a couple days ago. So excited. It's always fun when you receive something new to play with. Talking about excitement, I can't wait to see the new Hero Arts website. They have so much thing going on there this week. You really need to check the Hero Arts blog daily this week. There will be DOUBLE prizes, games, ideas, giveaways and more! And Wednesday is the BIG DAY - the launch of many fun new things at Hero Arts. So, check them out when you get a chance.

OK, I have to go finish my work, so that's it for today and here's a couple cards for you. I made this card a while back, but it's still one of my favorite and I don't think I have posted it here. I had lots of fun making this card. I attached the little birdie on a string, so you can move it up and down.:)

Happy Monday, everyone!

Vera

Bella Sketch

I finished unpack and settled in in my new office. Love the location and I have pretty good view of Houston downtown. The only downside, up to this day, I still have no phone or internet. I wonder how did people do business back in no-computer age? It's amazing how much I depend on computer and internet.

Hopefully, we'll have internet by next week. I am keeping my finger cross. Without internet, i can't do my work and I can't keep up with my craft blogs either. :) I follow several blogs and of course, I also like to check my yahoo group, Stamplicious, cause they have lots of ideas using Stamping Bella stamps.

Anyhoo..., I did manage to make a card using the latest skecth from Stamping Bella blog. I didn't get to join the challenge last week due to my work crazy schedule. Well, here's the card that I made using Maisy Ketto. The upclose shows the glitters on her crown, flowers and wings. The picture don't show it, but the "Birthday" word also has sparkles to it.

That's it for today. Hope your week is going great so far and thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!!!

Cheers,
Vera

Happy Sunday...

This past week flew by real fast for me. I didn't get to update my blog at all this past week, cause I was busy moving from one office to another. Every day was filled with packing and organizing stuff. By the time I got home, I was so whooped that I pretty much just had dinner, watch TV, and went to bed early.

Our 4th of July was low key. We had a few friends came over and hubby grilled some hamburger for us. There's supposed to be some baked potatoes to go along with the burger, but we totally forgot about it till the next day when we found it still in the microwave. :) We watched fireworks in front of our house, then just chat the night away.

I also supposed to be scrapbooking and making a bunch of card this weekend. That didn't happen. I was so tired and sore from all the moving, cleaning the house, that the rest of the time I was being a lazy bum. I did start my knitting project, though. I will share that project down the road. Need to make sure it looks okay, before I share it. Heh... I am new at knitting, so not too confidence to share it, yet. :)

Well, here's a quick card for you. Stamp from Inkadinkado, and I used the glossy accents to highlight the goggles and make it looks wet. I will try to posted some new cards this week. Have a great Sunday.

Happy Monday...

It's Monday and it's 4 days work week! I love short work week, cause that means I have long weekend. Not that I am planning anything for this weekend. I'd be happy to just have some time to lounge around and make some cards or scrapbooking a bit.

Beside, I really could use the long weekend as it seems like this past weekend just flew by. Yesterday was my birthday and my dear friend Joy, threw me a bday party. Loved, loved her! My bday party was fun, except for the fact that at the end I got a bit sick.

Yeah, learned real quick, me and heat do not get along. What was the heat index?? 105?? I was only outside for 5 minutes and I just felt my head gets really hot and I had to excuse myself. Went inside and guessing from super hot and bright to the cold AC temp in the house, just shocked my body. Long story short, almost passed out and I ended have to keep pressing the cold 7up can to my face and neck just to keep me cool. So lame.... I know. :)

On the bright side, my other dear friend, Leslie, brought this awesome tiramisu cake from the Cheesecake Factory. OMG... sooo yummy. And on top of that, she surprised me by dedicating her blog to me for that weekend. She wrote the sweetest thing and made me cry. I am so thankful that I have such loving friends. They are kind of crazy (I am the mildest one in the group), but very loving and thoughtful. Love you guys...

Okay, enough story. How 'bout some cards? I bought some new stamps, haven't get a chance to play with them yet, but will do soon. For now, here's a simple card I made using QK Silhouette. Enjoy and thank you for stopping by. Stay cool...

Happy Monday,
Vera

The birthday girl...

Today, I am the birthday girl. Sooo wishing to have my family here. Miss you guys so much. Talked to my mom this morning and she gave me the best birthday present. She'll be here for Christmas. Woohooo... Happy dance!! :)

Agenda for the rest of the day? Heading out for dimsum, some shopping at Michael's (papers on sale, can't pass that now, can't we??), then head to Joy's home for a lowkey birthday party. Joy is one of my dearest friend and she is the sweetest, most thoughtful person I know and she's throwing me a birthday party. Love ya, Joy! She has this contagious loud laugh that you can't help but laugh, too when you heard her laugh. I am sure you'll hear more stories of Joy down the road.

Back to bday babbling, yesterday, hubby spoiled me by getting me a big cappucino blast from Baskin Robbins, flower bouquet that he said was my present from the doggies (including a card from them, hehe...), and a nice dinner at Italian restaurant where he got me my tiramisu. Gotta love a thoughtful husband! Thanks, honey.

Anyhoo, for today, instead of cards, I'll share my family page. I'm so blessed to have a loving family and want to thank them for all their loving supports. So, today's post dedicated to them, especially to my mom. Love you, Mom!!

Well, off to celebrate and you all have a great Sunday.

Cheers,
Vera

Birthday weekend...

Yep, tomorrow I'll be celebrating my birthday. So, this whole weeked is my birthday weekend. Why just celebrate on the day when you can celebrate the whole weekend?? :) Friday afternoon, my coworkers surprised me with cute cupcake cake. The whole cake made of a bunch of little cupcakes with colorfull daisy on top. Really thought that they forgot and just going to ignore my birthday. It was a super busy week after all. So, I was delightful and grateful that they actually remember. My boss was even let me and hubby go home early that day.

I love birthdays, but at the same time usually my birthday is the time I feel slightly sad, too. I am the only one in my family that live far away. Both my brothers and my mom lives in another country, so needless to say at my birthday I always miss them terribly. I am grateful that I have a loving husband and thoughtful friends, just wish that my mom and my brothers could be here with me.

Sorry for the melancholy mood. Always happen at every birthday since I moved to the States. Well, time to cheer up, right. Nothing cheer me up like Baskin Robbins cappucino blast or a good tiramisu. So, this afternoon I am gonna get myself a big cappucino blast and tiramisu for dessert tonight. :)

Oh yeah, beside sweets, I love cards. All card maker love cards, right? I get this love of card from my mom. Growing up she always have card handy for all occasions. And I grew up treasuring those cards that my mom gave me cause she always put some inspiring and loving notes in each of those cards. Even my hubby learns quick, that he could forget gifts, but never forget to at least get a good card. :)

Well, to all card lovers out there, here's some cutie cards for ya. That's all for now. Enjoy your weekend and wear lots of sunscreen, cause here in TX it's a 100 degree!!!