Hero Arts giveaway...

Quick post for today. Made this card for Hero Arts 30 grand giveaway this weekend. You can check out the detail here. There's still time to play.

I am using HA Flower Blossom set and PTI Asian Fusion for the greeting. I used chalks in different shades of blue to create the soft background. For the center of the flowers, I did the french knot (3 knots for the big flowers, 2 for the medium one, and 1 for the smallest flower). I also covered the flowers with Radiant pearls and to make it even more sparkly, I add diamond stickles to each petal.

Up close you can see the soft pearl showing in between all the glitters. Add butterfly for a little accent.

OK, short one today. Off to the mall for some shopping therapy. :) You all have a great Sunday and if you're into the Olympic like I am this afternoon should be fun watching US vs Canada in ice hockey. Exciting!!!

Another easel card

I am in love with my Papertrey Ink collection. They're just so awesome. From the versatility to create your own background in seconds, to the variation they provide in 1 set, I just love it. And no, I don't get pay to say this. I am pretty particular when it comes to my scrapbook or stamping stuff.

I am one of those careful buyer. I don't just splurge and buy stuff. Whatever products I buy, I really consider and think how much am I going  to really use this stuff. Sometimes I do get the urge to follow the trend, but usually after some thinking period, 90% of the time, even if it's the trend, but it's not my style or I don't believe the quality, I don't buy it. Back to Papertrey Ink stamps, all I can say, I am glad that I branch out and tried their stuff.

Tonight I made another easel card. I do like this style. All stamps by Papertrey Ink. I bought 3 new sets from them and made 4 cards already and still playing. What's your favorite brand of stamps? Please share and leave your comments. I do read each comments and really appreciate the time you take for my blog. Thank you all for stopping by and have a good evening. Hugs, Vera.

PTI Blog Hop

I am super duper excited to join PaperTrey Ink blog hop for this month. I am pretty new to PTI stamps, but I can tell you that I LOVED PTI stamps! After waiting for a long time (hey a week wait is long when you're waiting for new stamps, especially if you've been drooling for it during the sneak peak), my 2nd order from PTI arrived  yesterday. I loved it that they took the time to wrap each set in tissue paper. It's like unwrapping a present. Even their small labels that wrapped around the set makes me happy. :)

This month blog we're supposed to make cards that inspired by PTI design team. I love Maile Belles style. Her cards have that clean look that just simply gorgeous. I made this card, inspired by her technique here (the 2nd card). The french knot on the flowers from Asian Fusion set really make the card unique. I usually use my needle to unplug my Diamond Glaze, LOL, now I am glad that I actually get to put my needle to other use.

Here's the close up of the flowers with the french knot.

I am soo in love with my PTI stamps that I actually made 3 cards for the blog hop. I love the simplicity of Dawn's card here. Her row of flowers inspired me to make this row of butterflies on my card.

I like browsing for inspirations and see what I can come up with. I know I could use the bigger butterfly to make it look more similar to Dawn's card, but I love this tiny butterfly. It just look so gentle and breezy.

Hope you enjoy the cards. Thank you so much for stopping by and please leave comments if you stop by here. Would love to know what you think. Have a super duper great evening, Vera.

Simplicity

Flower Blossom
Originally uploaded by Vera, Ling's Design Studio

The term "less is more" that we so often applied to make-up, also works for card making. :) There's something to be said about simple design.

I think often time, the blank space provide that eye catching balance for the whole design. Like this card for example. The white space on the left side make the flower stand out more.

I stamped the flower vine first using Stampin Up! Mellow Moss color. And, I have to say I have this inkpad for years and it still works awesome. Then on scrap paper, I stamped it again using Stampin Up! Rose Red inkpad. Cut the flowers, curl the edges a bit and attached to the green vine. Add pearls to the center of flowers and glitters on the leaves. For soft shimmer, I brushed Radiant Pearl in Oyster Shell on each of the flower petals using fine brush. And voila... you're done.

And actually, after I posted this on Flickr, I decided to rounded the right corner of the card. Just one side and it really completed the card even more. Hmm... maybe one of this say I'll try to do challenge on my blog. What do you think? What would you like to see on my blog? Please share your idea. Thank you so much and hugs for you all, Vera. :)

Flower blossom

Hi there. Just a quick post to show this card that I made last night. Actually, at first I was trying to do acetate card. Messed that one up when I am almost done. Got super irritated, that, yes, I did throw away that piece. My desk was a mess, glitters everywhere, I was not a happy camper. But, I know if I just quit right then and there it would bugs me the whole night.

So, I switched gear and decided to do technique that I know. I came up with this card below. Color inspiration is from a shirt I saw on Victoria Secret catalog. Love the blue and green combination. On top of that, I even use one of those color that I rarely use, purple! And I am glad I didn't mess this card up when I tried to stamped the greetings on both the ribbon and the cardstock part. Pheww... Super girly in many ways, soft colors, glitters, gemstone, & ribbon.

Oh, before I leave, how about blog candy?? Kath is giving away some awesome blog candy celebrating her blog birthday! You can check it out here. Okie dokie, that's it for today's post. Hope you like the cards. Hugs, Vera

Hero Arts Flower challenge

The theme for Hero Arts February challenge is flower. I have this HA Flower Blossom set still brand spanking new on its package. I bought it almost a year ago to use it for my scrapbook page (saw the idea on the HA blog) because I really like 1 of the stamp and then of course, I never quite get to do that page, yet. Hah... I even contemplate of selling this stamp, thinking I'd never use it. That I only like 1 stamp from the whole set.

As I posted yesterday, I didn't really feel like I have my mojo, but I thought what the heck, might as well give this stamp set a try. And I ended up using this flower branch. I notice the hard thing when I start something without my mojo going, I tend to make mistake. After I stamped this flower, I was coloring it with my prisma color pencils and it kind of blend in some of the black ink. I was all frustrated and ready to just throw this card. But then, as usual, I feel bad about throwing away paper. :) Decided to use the old trick of covering up my mistake. I stamped the image again, this time on a pink dotted paper and cut the flowers out. 

And the placement of that butterfly that everyone said is awesome, pure incidents. I made another booboo on the leaves, so I thought hey, butterfly here you go. LOL. Love, how every mistake can be turn into opportunity. Also, I truly love PaperTrey Ink Signature Greeting set. It dressed up even the simplest card and it really become one of my favorite set.

Well, you guys have a wonderful Monday and crossed my fingers that hopefully today my new order from PTI will come in! Hugs, Vera.

Where's my mojo?

Time to adjust. It just me, hubby, and the doggies again. This past 3 months had been really nice to have my mom here spoiling me rotten. LOL. She's such a good cook and  it sure was awesome to have homemade meals waiting for us whenever we come home from work. Gosh, even our doggies got spoiled by my mom. They actually got to sleep on the bed with her. :)

I was sad and a bit depressed on Friday after taking her to the airport. Have to say that being away from my family is a constant struggle for me. As much as I love living in the States, I miss my family all the time. I so cherished my time with my mom. I was able to spoiled her and we have some very memorable memories. Including her being silly with my husband. She's actually the one who told me to chill out when my husband wants to act silly and she even joined him for the sillyness.  Yep, my hubby get along with his MIL just fine. I sometime wonder what kind of trouble these 2 can get into when I am not around. :)

I did feel like I lost my mojo a little bit when she left. I just want to curl up on the sofa and do nothing. I did that Friday night. Saturday, still not feeling it. My PTI stamps still hasn't arrive. More depressed (isn't it amazing what stamps can do to you??? Just kidding...). Anyhow, come Sunday, hubby told me to get myself a massage to make me feel better. I sooo love him for that! :)

I feel better and forced myself to make cards, mojo or no mojo. Here's the 1st card. Was playing with my ribbon stash and even tried out stamping on a ribbon technique. This card going in for Lucy's dots challenge. Recognize the birdie? Yep, that's my sketch of the egg birdie.

Start to feel the mojo coming back. Feeling the mojo tickling me, I continue to mess around and made this card:

I don't usually do the masking technique as I think it's too much hassle. But, I messed up the finished image of this flower stamp, and I couldn't just throw it away. So I decided to cut it up and use it as a mask.  I stamped the flower on a clean cardstock and then layer the mask and stamped the old handwriting stamped with SU Mellow Moss ink.  Then color the flowers with copic and prismacolor markers. Once I done with coloring, I used chalk to create the soft colors for the background. Layer the cardstock with blue paper and green cardstock. Stamped the greeting and add gemstone to center of flowers and covered the leaves andpart of the flowers with diamond stickles. And voila... you're done.

OK, that's my long post for today. What inspired you when you lost your mojo? How do you get it back? Please share and leave comments whenyou stop by here. I love reading all your comments. Cheers and enjoy th rest of your Sunday eve. Hugs, Vera

Time together

After 3 wonderful months of being with my mom, it's time to say till we meet again. She is going back tomorrow and I already start crying and she hasn't even left. :) I am always in such emotional mess whenever my mom has to leave. I guess, it'll be different if she only lives in different state instead of different country, which as far as can be, on the other side of the world. Where we never know when we get to see each other again. Could be a year, could be 2 or even 3.

I miss not being there with her on day to day basis, you know. To only catching up by phone or email. I feel like I am missing out. Granted, I choose to be in the States, but boy... how much I wish for my family to be close by. Every birthday, every celebration, I miss them like crazy. I love my mom and my brothers and we are close with each other.

Oh gosh, I probably sound like a whiny baby right now. My mom even try to  threatened me  that if I cry she wouldn't come anymore. Hah... like she's not crying. Sometime, I do envy my friends who could just drop by their parents place anytime they want or those who could go shopping together with their mom anytime. Or when I make cards, I wish I could just show it to her.

Well, I ordered some PaperTrey Ink stamps to cheer me up. Hoping it will get here on time. My husband was like yes honey, just ordered whatever stamps you want. He hates seeing me crying. So, hopefully, this weekend I can manage to stop crying and bury myself in card making. Meanwhile, thank you for letting me venting off my sadness.

Mom, hope you have a safe trip and thank you for making the trip. I love you so much! Love, Ling

Reverie Creation Contest

Love You Card 2
Originally uploaded by Vera, Ling's Design Studio

OMG... I am soooo happy!! Open my email today and received the news from Becky from Reverie Creation saying that my card won their Valentine card contest. My first!!! Yay... happy dance, jazz hand, the whole nine yard!

I've been entering a bunch of challenge this past year and sometime I wonder if I would ever win anything. And just a few blog ago, I posted how my dog taught me the attitude of never give up. To keep trying. And it certainly feels amazing when it happened.

Back in 2003 was the first time I entered any challenge or try out for design team. Back then, I was chosen to be on the design team for Simply Sentiments magazine. The feeling is same like right now. Pure joy!

So, here's the card that won that honor. I posted this on the blog a couple weeks ago. And, I want to thanks you all who always cheering me on my cards. Hugs, Vera

Celebration weekend

Hi everyone... How was your weekend, your Valentine, your New Year? My weekend start Friday evening with dinner with my girlfriend, Joy. Hubby cooked us a wonderful T-bone steak and we watched the Olympic opening. I thought they did pretty good job with the opening ceremony.

Then Saturday morning, we took my mom to the Houston Zoo. It was a bit on the cold side, which was a bummer as it is kind of hard to take your time walking around and enjoying the view when your ears feels like it's going to fall off. :) Then, in the evening we had wonderful Valentine's dinner with my in-laws. My brother-in-law is a chef at one of the Whole Food in town and they set up part of the store for dining just for Valentine. Menu??? Lobster and shrimp, surf and turf, or fillet. Can you say YUMMY?? And the dessert tray was a bunch of different dessert, including tiramisu, cheesecake, lemon pie, brownies, and chocolate covered strawberries.  It was to die for!! Thank you Mom & Dad for the wonderful treat!! :)

After dinner, we picked up my aunt and cousin who are visiting from Wyoming. Goodness, we stayed up till 1AM. We looked through my childhood scrapbook and just reminiscing. It was awesome. The next day, which is also Chinese New Year, we met up with all my cousins for a big Malaysian/Indonesian lunch. I just wish my brothers were here to celebrate with us. It would make it complete!

So, that's what happen on my side of the world. :) And this morning, I got a text that my girlfriend, Deb is about to have her baby. Her water broke and now I am waiting for the news!! This is the card that I made for her. The lady bug is digital image by Mindy Terawasa from Designers Digital. Greetings from Paper Trey Ink (which has a bunch of new stuff coming out today).

Well, this week is my last week with my mom. She'll be going home on Friday. I am already emotional. Sigh... I wish she lives in the States. I might not post as much this week as I want to spend as much time with her and I am guessing the water work (crying) will follow. To all that celebrate, I wish you all  the very best for this Tiger year and may this year be filled with blessing, good health, prosperity, and happiness for you.

Hugs,

Vera

Silhouette

I had my Silhouette machine for almost a year now and at the beginning I rarely used it. Not sure why. Just feel like it too much trouble to learn or what. Anyhoo, as they came up with more and more cool designs, I find myself using it a lot more in this past couple months.

Is your Silhouette loud? Mine is. Not sure whether that's the way it supposed to sound or what. It's refurbished and I got it at half price and as long as it works, I am  okay with it. For now. :) But, boy when it cuts it is so loud, that I usually just crammed as much design as I can in 1 piece of paper and then just leave the room and let it do its magic.

As you can see I love the birds. They have the cutest bird. And I love the tree branches and the hollyhocks, etc. I learned that if you double layer and let it go through the cut twice it will have a cleaner cut. It is a bit annoying to wait that long (I am very impatient sometimes :)), but hey it's so worth it. Especially for those delicate cut, patience is important. Here's my card using the bird and heart branches. 

On personal note, last night, I had a very nice visit with my girlfriend, Deb and her boyfriend George. My mom cooked us a super delicious dinner and they brought over chocolate covered strawberry and cheesecake. Yummy.... And my little Deb (I am like 5' even and she may be an inch taller than me), she looks like she's ready to pop anytime now. I am excited for her and I am soon going to be an aunt! Counting the days for me to meet my new niece. Okay, enough rambling, time to get back to work. You all have a great day and have fun watching the Olympic!

Hugs, Vera

Baby card

I have 3 people in my life that's going to have babies within months of each other. My best friend, Deb is expecting to deliver her baby girl, by next week, then the owner of my company, and my boss are expecting theirs in spring. I am excited for my girlfriend. Deb is the tomboy one in my circle of friend and she certainly surprised me by being the first one to have a baby. I can't wait to be an aunt!!

I don't get to make baby cards that often. So, this moment right now kind of fun, cause I get to do super cutesy stuff. Although, my friends would argue that I do cutesy all the time. Hah... Yeah, cutesy and me usually go in one sentence. LOL... ;)

Well, I made this quick card last night for my boss' baby shower. This is kind of hybrid card, I guess. I got the giraffe from Designers Digital. Mindy Terawasa safari set. Love Mindy's stuff. I just printed the giraffe twice, cut around one of the giraffe and layer it with pop dot for a little dimension. Put glitters on the hair, then once the glitter dry, I cut the hairs for extra texture.

As for baby for me and my husband, we're still  trying. We are open for adoption, but at this moment, we are still giving it a try. We're still newly wed, too (going to celebrate our 2 years anniversary next month), so we want to take our time on being couple before having kids. But, I am going to see doctor and see what we need to do. Cross your fingers people, that hopefully everything will work out and one of this day, we'll have our own little bundle of joy. That's all the post for today. Happy hump day!!! :)

Just rambling away

Woohooo... go Saints!! I have no clue about football, but I do root for the Saints. Supporting the neighbor the way I see it. :) LOL. I tend to root for the underdog. And what a sweet surprise that they won!!

Meanwhile, while hubby watching football, I've been busy playing. And, a shot out to my dear hubby for being super sweet. Yesterday, we wanted to take my mom to the Woodlands area and it's about an hour away from our home. Hubby made an offer that if I drive, he'll cut my printed butterflies for me, because I was going to do that while he's driving. I took his offer!! Now, courtesy of my sweet, sweet hubby, I have an envelope full of butterflies. :)

Back to playing, I came up with a couple cards. I've been using my Silhouette a whole lot more lately. One of my favorite is the "Hollyhock silhouette". Just love the way they look. I used white cardstock and then color them with copics, that way I can always play with what colors I want to do.

I love the color combination on this one. We had such a gloomy weather here lately (with the exception of yesterday) that I feel like I need some cheerful color. And this card does it for me. What do you think? And here's the other card.

The round circle kind of act as a button. When you press the card close, the circle with the butterfly popped up a bit higher than the card. Just enough for a little oomph! :) I am not sure why, but lately I jut been in the mood to keep making cards. I supposed to do more scrapbook, as that's one of my goal this year, but with cards it feels like instant gratification, since I can do it faster than scrapbook. I am a slow scrapbooker. Heh...

Talking about scrapbook, I have another sweet surprise that just made my day. I only subscribe to 1 scrapbook magazine, which is Scrapbooks, Etc., and Erin Terrell Clarkson has been one of my favorite scrapbooker since I saw her early work on there. And guess what... she sent me an email responding to my comment about how I appreciate it that she loves Bali. Bali is one of my favorite place. It's a small island in Indonesia where the people are friendly, they have gorgeous beach, etc. Anyhoo...., I am just super delighted at how sweet Erin is for taking the time to email me and that she thinks my cards are cute. Her email truly made my day.

Well, I only going to have my mom here for 2 more weeks. I could sooo already feel myself being moody and sad at the thought of her going back to Indonesia. I am always emotional when it's close to time to say goodbye again. I wish my mom live close to me. And my brothers. I love living in the States, but I do miss my family a lot. Well, enough rambling, I better enjoy my time with her. Going to hang out with mom. Hugs everyone, Vera

PTI 3rd Anniversary...

The party continue to celebrate Paper Trey Ink 3rd anniversary. For today challenge it is resist embossing. It's really a fun, fun technique. Here is my card for today's challenge. It's a simple, but sweet card.

I first stamped the glossy card with PTI Vintage Label, embossed it with white embossing powder. Then repeat the  process with the greeting. Afterwards, I swiped the blue, green, and pink layers of color using baby wipes. Love baby wipes! :) The brown background was stamped with the stamp from Polka Dots basic set.  I {heart} this set.

Well, just a shor post for tonight. It's been a long week at work and I am ready to chill out. Have a great weekend everyone. hugs, Vera.

Mojo Monday 124

I posted my doodle bird a couple days ago and I have to say the ladies on  the Hero Arts flickr group are the nicest. They left nice comments and give me such encouragement, that I was inspired to keep exploring my doodling.

My close friend, Deb, was asking me why I didn't use my own design before. And I thought about it, I guess the answer is because I thought my drawing is too kiddie like and too cutesy. I am not sure that people will like it. But, with my previous card here, I really fall in love with this bird. And yes, it's cutesy. I showed it to my husband and my mom and they both loved it (my mom pretty straight forward, she will says it's ugly if she thinks so, that's why I trust her opinion, my husband.. hehe... he loves everything I make, so his opinion is a bit questionable... Love ya, honey!), so I am like hey if they thought it's adorable, who knows, it might make someone else smile, too.

I always love doodling and usually my best doodling are the ones I made on napkin, scribble papers, or paper tableccloth at a restaurant. You know,  things that you usually throw away. :) But, my goal for this year is to keep trying and better myself in doodling. If I can make someone else smile with it, then I am happy.

Here, I used my doodle bird  to make card for Mojo Monday challenge.

This card below, just another result of my doodling. I call this my peanut birds, because the body shape reminds me of peanuts. It can be used for couple or for friendship card. So far,  this is my favorite. They both just look so sweet. Please be honest and let me know what you  think of my doodling. Do you like it, not so, please let me know. Thank you all for your suggestion. Hugs, Vera

Paper Trey Ink

Paper Trey Ink is celebrating their 3rd anniversary with 14 daily give away. I just recently get into  PTI stamps and I love them! I want to have all their stamp. For their 2nd day giveaway the PTI designers each create a free download and we get to make card using those image. Let me tell you, they have some yummy goodness there.

For my card, I used Becky Oehlers image. Love her design. It's clean looking and you can make cards in a snap with it. Here's my take using Becky's design.

You know, I have entered so many challenges this past year and haven't really win anything. But, I was watching my pug, Ollie and I was so inspired by her. I have 2 dogs, Ollie the pug and Nick the sheltie. Every time, after Ollie finished her bowl, she would run to check Nick's bowl to see if there's anything left. And Nick 99% of the time lick his bowl clean just  like Ollie. But, every day Ollie keep checking, just in case that day would be the day Nick didn't finish his bowl.

As I watch this, I look at my husband and told him, do you realized there's so many things you can learn from our dog? Just now, I learned from Ollie to never give up. Just because you don't succeed the day before, keep doing it, keep trying. And that's what I am doing now. To keep on trying. You won't know unless you try. I get as much joy from making the cards even when I don't win. And the day I do win, I am going to jump up and down and twirl around, just like my pug does, when she's happy!

That's my lesson for the day that I learned from my pug. I am hoping this year, I can regularly posted the wisdom I learned from my doggies. :)  Thank you all for looking. By the way, I was late to enter the PTI giveaway for the 2nd day. Oh well... Keep on trying. :) Hugs, Vera

Another card for Sweet Sunday challenge

I am on a roll this past few days. I made at least 5 cards. I actually made this dragonfly card (for Sweet Sunday Sketch Challange) before I made the birdie card that I posted on my  blog yesterday. But, as you can see I was too giddy yesterday and want to share the birdie first. And I sketch even more birdie and I will share those as soon as I have the chance making card with those image.

So, here's my vellum dragonfly. And I loved, loved PTI "Signature Greetings set by Dawn McVey". That set can dressed up any card, even the simplest one. I fell in love with that set from the moment I laid my eyes on it. Sigh.... love at first sight. :)

Well, short post for today. Hope you enjoy the card. Hugs, Vera.

My very own birdie...

Super excited, today. I was just doodling around and ended up with this cute birdie on a tree branch. Okay, granted my drawing is simple and kiddie like, but I thought it still come out pretty decent and cute. :) I made a quick card with it and here it is, my very own doddling birdie on my card.

This card is perfect for Karen's Sweet Sunday Challenge. I actually made 2 cards for her challenge. I actually made the other card first, but want to show my cute birdie. My mom called it the egg birdie because of it shape. Haha..

Well, there you have it folks, you never know what you get when you're doodling around.  I love doodling and sometime I come up with the cutest stuff, but when I try to redraw it again I just couldn't make it quite as good as when I first did it. But, this one is doable, despite the shaky line. :)

If you stop by, let me know what you think. Thank you for taking the time for checking my rambling here. Love ya, Vera