Make A Wish Fox

Right now, I am loving the banner look and I totally love the way my banner card turned out.

Supplies: Avery Elle To The Point set, Bunting set,
Storybook set, More Storybook set

To create the soft coloring on  the fox, I used my colored pencil and a stub dipped in turpentine to even the color. It always make me happy when my card turned out cute & sweet. 

Also, by now, I am sure you already heard that i {heart} papers is closing. Everything in the store is now 40% off. I mean EVERYTHING. I stocked up on 6x6 paper pad. Check out the store now to get better selection. Thank you for stopping by here and may your week starts off wonderfully.

Lantern Beauty

When I was 3-5 years old, one of my fond memories was the festival of lantern. My parents would get my brothers and me lantern in animal shape and in the evening we get to walk around the neighborhood carrying the lantern. I remember that I love watching the candle flicker through the lantern and simply enjoying the walk while proudly carrying my beautiful lantern. So often, it's the simple things that I remember & treasure.

When I saw this pretty set from Avery Elle, it totally brings back those memories.

Supplies: Avery Elle Bunting set, Avery Elle Lemon Grass,
Aquamarine ink pads

With this post, I also want to let you know that after over 6 years in the business, i {heart} papers is closing its door. I am sad about this, as ihp is one of my favorite store. I have to say that Kate provide one of the fastest shipping in the industry. She's a been a pleasure to work for as well.

With this new, everything in the store is on sale for 30% off. For best selection, you want to shop early. Check out the store for all the available goodies. Thanks so much for stopping by here and may your week starts off wonderfully.

Wishing Penguin

Oh my... there's only a few days left of 2014. I always have mix feeling about the end of the year. On one end I am excited for the coming year, on the other end, I'd look back and wonder where did the year go. And, looking back often makes me feel melancholy.

There's always so much things I want to do, to experience and the fact that the year fly by so fast, sometime just makes me wonder if I'd get to do all the stuff on my bucket list. And, I also think of the many family moments that I miss with me being far away from my mom and my brothers. This part definitely makes me sad.

Anyway, I try hard not to dwell  on being sad. It's not something that just come naturally, but over the years, I have become a more optimistic person and subconsciously I tend to wish big. And, sometime the wish doesn't come true right away, but for it come true, you have to dream it, to wish it, right?

This card says it all. Wish big! :)

Supplies: Avery Elle Storybook set, More Stories set,
Lawn Fawn Hello Sunshine petite paper pack,
Glitz Felicity 6x6 paper pad

I made this mini card using goodies I got from i {heart} papers. My SIL just let me know she needed more mini card and of course, I am happy to oblige. :) Am also entering this card to Simon Says Stamp anything goes challenge.

For now, I am enjoying the long weekend. It's nice to have a break from work. I was feeling burn out and totally savoring this time off. It's nice to just rest, you know. Well, that's all for me. Come back on Monday as I'll have a fabulous announcement to share. See you soon.

Birthday Bunny

Last night, I get to make card for the sake of just playing. I browsed around looking for fun challenge and saw Cutting Edge Challenge # 11, which is to create card inspired by Melania Deasy's card.

I love the colors and the CAS design of her card and here's my interpretation of the challenge.

Supplies: Lawn Fawn Snow Day, Avery Elle Picture It,
Paper Smooches Balloons dies, Wink of Stella Glitter Brush

By the way, I am excited to share that the 5th annual Caring Hearts Card Drive will starts tomorrow! We have lined up some amazing prizes and when I said amazing, I really mean AMAZING!! Biggest prizes we ever have.

I am still pinching myself that we're already on our 5th year! Every year, I debated whether I should continue to do it or not, because it's a lot of work and sometime it does gets overwhelming. But, every year I reminded myself of the note I got from one of the card recipient. How our cards brighten her holiday season. And, that keeps me going.

I hope you will join us this year. The post will be up exactly at midnight CST, October 4th. Let me know what you think once you see it. I hope you're as excited as I am. LOL, I am excited and I cannot even win the prize. The prizes are for you, supporter of Caring Hearts Card Drive! Let's make our 5th year a fantastic one!

Hello

Hi there. I have this Pink Paislee Pen Pals paper pad in my stash for awhile now. I fell in love with it from the moment I saw the sneak peek, but as usual, I had a hard time to make that first cut.

Finally, after 3 months of having this paper pad just sitting there on the shelf, I went ahead and use a couple of the patterned paper from this pad. Yay... me. :)

I combined them with Avery Elle Laurels and Oh Yeah set. As usual, when I work with patterned paper, I  tend to question myself whether it looks right. Hah... The CAS girl in me want to tone it down, but the other part of me is saying be brave, step out of your comfort zone. It just a card. Nothing gain if you don't try, right?

By the way, some enabling for you. i {heart} papers is now back on full swing. With the move done, the store is back on business and plenty of new goodies rolling in. So, check out the store if you need some stamping goodies. I plan to place my order as soon as the Wplus9 goodies come in this weekend.

That's it for me today folks. I'll see ya in the next post. Ciao....

Ikat Pattern

Happy Thursday. I am back with my post for i {heart} papers. For a couple days  my mojo kind of went out the window and thank goodness it's back now. While mojo is here I took advantage of it and played with a few fun sets and made this card.

I still love the ikat pattern and am glad that I give it a try again. For the background I used Avery Elle Ikat set. The sentiment is from Reverse Confetti Lots To Say set and the flowers are from Wplus9 More Fresh Cuts. And the label dies is Paper Smooches Duo Die 3. All supplies from i {heart} papers.

Love the way this card turn out. Every time I see the ikat pattern it reminds me a bit of home (Indonesia), where ikat is part of our culture.

Which, talking about home, in a few more weeks, I'll get to see my whole family again and I'll finally get to meet my niece!! Right now, I am busy preparing for the trip and working on all DT works in advance. Enough to make my days a whirlwind. But, I can't wait! Not looking forward for the long flight and being away from the doggies (I am pretty attach to my li'l shadows), but looking forward to hang out with the families, relaxing, getting to know my niece and of course... doing some shopping. I love shopping in Indonesia and checking out the malls.

Anyhooo.... that's all from me right now. Be back tomorrow for a blog hop with CardMaker & Technique Tuesday! It's going to be fun!

Make A Wish

For someone who loves animal, any stamp set that has cute critters easily find their way to my heart. Right now, I am  loving the critters from Avery Elle Storybook set.

With its sweet images, I created this sweet, mini spring card. I am also entering this card for Simon Says Stamp animal antics challenge.

The patterned paper is from Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic set. And, as much as I love fussy cutting, when you're short in time, it sure is nice to have the (Storybook) matching dies handy. Added some spotlight/disco gold sequins to make the  card feel a bit more festive.

I will have to make quite a few mini cards in the next 2 months. My SIL owns a bakery and for all her special order she always included a handmade mini card. I will be visiting my family again in a couple months and will be giving a bunch of mini cards to my SIL, so definitely need to stock up. :)

Well, I still have tons of stuff to do. I'll see you on the next post. xo

Best Wishes

Hi everyone. Happy Sunday and happy Easter. We celebrated with the family and now that everyone is full and taking nap, I decided to do a quick post.

This week I received my i {heart} papers goodies and included in my order are Avery Elle Storybook stamps & dies set. This set has such a whimsical feeling to it that i just have to get it. :)

And, when I saw Taheerah's Cure For The Monday Blues challenge #13, I found the perfect inspiration for my card. And, double whammy, I get to enter this card for Simon Says Stamp animal antics challenge.

                                                    

However, instead of going all neon, I went for softer hues.

For the background, I made my own stencil. I use my Silhouette to cut a sheet of acetate with background pattern. Then, once that done I used my new Mini Ink Blending Tool to fill in the colors. I really refer this smaller blending tool as I can have more control over the area I am coloring.

You couldn't quite see it in the pictures, but I also added Wink of Stella glitter in clear on the circles, so there's beautiful shimmer on this card.

Hope you all have beautiful Sunday. Cheers....

Happy Gotcha Day!

Last night as I was playing around my craft room, I realized that I have so many stamp sets that din't get enough love. And that makes me feel bad. So, I decided to find an inspiration and using sets that I haven't been using for a while.

I found this sweet inspiration pic from Taheerah's Cure For The Monday Blues # 12.

With rescue dog, we don't know when they're actual birthday, so we celebrate the adoption day, what we called "Happy Gotcha Day". At first, I started this card thinking to make birthday card. But then, I saw the heart paw stamp and change my mind and came up with this card instead:

The "happy sentiment is from Avery Elle Fill In The Blank set. And the sweet heart paws & puppy are from Paper Smooches Paws For A Cause set. The yellow patterned paper is from American Crafts Splendid Sunshine 6x6 paper pad. I figure a little shimmer never hurt, so I brushed the heart paws with Wink of Stella Brush Glitter Marker. All of these available at i {heart} papers store.

That's it for me today. Thank you so much for stopping  by here. May your day be a sweet one.

Happy Spring

Happy Friday! And happy spring. My favorite season of the year, where flower blooms and everything looks pretty. :) Oh, not to mention the nice weather.

Somehow, yesterday I kept thinking it was Wednesday instead of Thursday. It's been one of those week, where there's just craziness all around. I am so ready for the weekend.

Anyway, last night I was finally able to sit down and play. I made this card for i {heart} papers.

The soft color patterned paper is from Dear Lizzy Day Dreamer 6x6 paper pad. And since the background has a soft tone, for contrast I created the flowers with bright colors to make them stand out. The gorgeous flowers and sentiment are from Avery Elle Laurels set with its matching dies.

BTW, have you check outthe store lately? They have lots of new goodies in. So, if you need some enabling... hah.... please check out i {heart} papers. May your weekend starts off wonderfully.

Thanks A Bunch

Yesterday, I came home to happy mail. Got my goodies from i {heart} papers. I've been eyeing Avery Elle Thanks A Bunch set from the moment I saw it from their new release sneak peek. So, needless to say I wanted to play with it right away.

The patterned paper is from Carta Bella  Hello Again 6x6 paper pad. You can check out the Carta Bella collection that i {heart} papers carry over HERE. This is a super quick card. Take me less than 5 minutes to complete this.

Cut the patterned paper, stamp the images directly on it and cover the flower with clear Wink of Stella for some sparkle and that's it.

As much as I am excited for some new stamp, I have to admit, I've been struggling to create. I think all the holiday craziness just gets to me. All the commercialized side of the holidays was a total turn off for me. Maybe it just me, but this year, I feel like it's too much about sales, sales, sales instead of family, family, family. Then again, the holidays always makes me miss my family even more and even 18 years I've been in the States, that feeling never go away. So, maybe I am just feeling down. 

Or, I might have eaten too much sweet. I don't want to see anymore cookies for a while now. Yep... New Year resolution. Healthier lifestyle is in order. Okay... enough rambling from me. :) TGIF!!

Joy

I am way behind in making my Christmas cards for family and friends. Yep... I am still working on my cards. Nothing like last minute pressure. :)

 

Last night, I made this card using some goodies I got from i {heart} papers.

 

 

I used Avery Elle Laurel set for the wreath and the sentiment is from Wplus9 Silver Bells set. To add some festivity to this card I used Diamond Stickles on the leaves so it's all sparkly. Nothing say festivity like some sparkle, right?

And that cute birdie is from Studio Calico that I colored with Hero Arts dauber. Loving those daubers!

So, are you done with your Christmas cards or are you like me, hustle at the last minute kind of gal? Either way, enjoy your holiday season.

Oh, update on the card drive. We broke our record. This year we received about 3600 cards. We are sorting and packing all the cards at the moment. We will pick winners soon. So, stay tune!

You Are Amazing

Yay, this weekend, I was able made several cards. Finally, have a little bit of mojo going. Most of the cards I made are DT work for an upcoming new releases, a couple for submission and one is for my i {heart} papers post.

I have a few sets that are still new in its package that I figure it's about time I use them. Yep, seriously, the 3 sets I use today were never been inked till just now. The set I used are Avery Elle Oh Yeah, Fill In The Blank and Paper Smooches Briny Blue.  

I love the combo of white with bright blue. This card is pretty simple, but with the bright blue popping against the white background, it's eye catching, no?

Of course, a little bit of glitter couldn't hurt, so I added some sticklers on the fish black stripe. Am pretty happy with the way this card turn out. 

Well, that's it for me today. Can't sit too long. My back was finally healing, then smart me, not paying attention while walking, I forgot there's a step and I went flying and hit the floor hard. I can't remember the last time I had such an epic fall. Totally sprawled on the floor. It was a grand fall. Floor 1, me 0. Yep, the floor wins. :)

May your coming week starts off in a grand way, but good grand way. Cheers....

Hello Sweet

First of all, I want to say thank you so much to all the kind words you all left on my post for Ollie yesterday. Your kind words do bring me comfort. It's only been 2 days and we are still feeling the pain. I know it will takes time, but we'll heal. Please know that I really, really appreciate your heartwarming words.

At first, I really didn't feel like creating. I actually hadn't touch my crafting desk for a week as I had been worrying about Ollie. But, last night, I forced myself to sit and create. Not to dwell on my sadness. 

The vet gave me a book on dealing with the loss of a pet. The book said take your time to grieve. Acknowledge your loss. Give yourself 20 minutes to cry a good cry and then do something that makes you happy. For me, that would be creating.

As I was looking for inspiration, I found Avery Elle sketch challenge and I do need to create a post for i {heart} papers, so it was perfect. Good inspiration and duty are good incentives.

Hubby always said Ollie is such a sweetheart and it makes me think of the sentiment "hello sweet". :)

I used three Avery Elle sets to create this card:  the word hello from Oh Yeah, the word sweet from Celebrate and the leaves and flower are from Laurels set (along with the matching dies).

I want to create a soft look, so for the layered circle, I created a mask and color it with distress ink. Once the inner circle done, I cover that and use another larger circle mask and again fill it with distress ink. Then I added the black polka dot patterned paper (from Simple Stories Say Cheese 6x6 pad) and stamped the sentiment. Finished it with leaves, flower and sequins.

Thank you for swinging by here and again thank you so much for all your kind words.

Stamping on Feather

On the recent Paper Crafts Handmade Cards publication, I have 2 of my favorite cards in there. One was the one that showcased HERE and the other one is this one: 

This card has very soft and pretty look. I got the feathers from the general craft section at Hobby Lobby and color them with distress ink and then stamped one of them with handwritten background stamp. Definitely color them first, then stamp it. If you do it the other way around, you'll end up with lots of smear. LOL... yep, speaking from experience. ;)

To keep the soft look, I stamp the pretty sentiment from Avery Elle "Celebrate" set in colors that match the colors on the feathers. If you're interested on Avery Elle's products check out i {heart} papers.

I also want to use this chance to thank both Avery Elle and i {heart} papers for their support for Caring Hearts Card Drive. They are simply awesome, awesome companies!

PS: So excited to share that my Santa card is being showcased at Paper Crafts Connection HERE and on Moxie Fab HERE. Double happiness. So grateful... 

May your day be filled with things that makes you grateful. Cheers.... 

Spread Happiness

Hi peeps. How's your weekend going? Mine is filled with movie (we rented Jack the Giant Slayer, which was kind of okay, nothing special), trips to check out the new Costco in my town and laundry!! Hah... I actually am super excited to do laundry this time because hubby got me a new steamer. I love it! So much better than ironing. Glad that I get to apply the lesson I learned from working at clothing store, which is how to steam clothes efficiently without burning your fingers. :)

And I am squeezing in a card to play along with Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger A Painterly Palette challenge. Here's the inspiration pic:

                                           

As you can see I am still into ikat pattern. Last time I play with the ikat pattern here I was using muted color palette. This time I go with happy color palette inspired by the cheerful color from the pic.

To create the colorful pattern I simply use my ZIG markers to color the image and then I huff on the stamp to moisten the ink before I stamped the image. This card come together pretty quick which I love, since lately I've been trying to balance my time between work, crafting & actually have down time to relax. :)

Now, I am off to relax and catching up on my piles of magazine. Good nite.....

You Are Amazing

** For There She Goes Stamps Blog Hop please scroll down. **

Hi peeps. This is my second post for today.  I was browsing for some inspiration and saw Avery Elle July's challenge. Just the inspiration that I needed. :) Here's the inspiration pic:

Inspired by the feather pattern I created the background pattern on my card using Avery Elle Ikat Addition set. I love the ikat trend. So proud to see this traditional Indonesian fabric pattern everywhere nowadays.

The ikat pattern is so much fun to play with. I simply love the various possibilities of patterns that you can created by mix and match the single image. To create the modern feeling, I position the sentiment right in the middle. The sentiment was stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad. You can get the stamp set and the ink pad at i {heart} papers.

 

Fun pattern, right? And simply by changing the color combination, you can end up with totally different look. Give ikat pattern a try and I am sure you'll be hooked. :)

 

Thank you so much for stopping by here and happy Thursday (which one of my favorite day of week)!!

Just For Fun

Somehow I am always easily pulled by sweet images. I think the kid part of me will always like cutesy & sweet stuff. I've been debating whether I should get this cute Wryn images from Tiddly Inks or not since I first saw it. Well, I finally gave in and got it and give it a whirl.

Sometime when I am feeling overload, it's fun when I get to create just for fun. No DT requirement, no submission, just making card for fun.

Challenge: Simon Says Stamp - have a heart

Currently loving making card in size 3 x 4.25. Love the small space, yet it's still provide enough space to allow your creativity to show. :)