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.