Cockatoo Birthday Cards

 Hi  there. This year, one of my intention was to use sets that I've purchased but haven't used or have used once or twice and then nothing. I think as crafter one of our joy is when we get on our hands sets that we just have to have. But then quite often, we got the set and there... the sets just sit there waiting to be used. With this intention, I try to change that habit. I try to remember why I have to have the set and take the time to create with it.

One of those set is this Waffle Flower Tropical Kit. I remember when I saw this set, I was like, oh my goodness, it's so cute and I must have it. And, yep, it sat there for I wanna say about a year. Hah... This weekend, I finally get to it and created a bunch of cards. Started with this trio. 

A note, this post is really not about promoting any particular sets as many of the sets I used on this set are no longer available. My post today is really about creating and  blogging just for the fun of it. :)

I love tropical theme, after all I came from tropical country. For the background, I used an old, discontinued set that I believe from Concord & 9th. For the sentiment I used sentiment from Papertrey Ink Beautiful Butterflies set. Again, this set also already been discontinued. Bottom line, I think we all have sets that we just keep because it's timeless and we love it regardless whether they're new or not.

The next card use sentiment from another old Papertey Ink Birthday Style set.

Last but not least, the last card using sentiment from Papertrey Ink Side By Side Sentiments set.

I had lots of fun making these cards. There's freedom in creating when I can  just mix and match various brands in 1 card. After all, we spent a lot of money building our crafting stash, might as well use it as much as we can right? I really hope my post today inspire you to go through your stash and give old sets another chance. Have fun creating!

Sending Hugs Floral Wreath

Hi peeps! I managed to finish a card this past weekend. I've been neglecting my Papertrey Ink stamps lately, so when I saw their birthday celebration challenge, I thought this is a perfect time to show my PTI sets some love.

I am playing along with their 1st day challenge to create a card based on one of the color recipe. Since, I am a fan of Maile Belle's work it's no surprise that I was drawn to her color combo.

And, here's my card based on the color combo using the Twig Wreath & Big Hugs set.

I love the way this card turned out. It's simple & sweet. Have to admit, I wouldn't have thought of using this color combo for the wreath on my own. My mojo been  a bit scattered lately, so it's nice when you have inspiration to work from.

Hoping to play with more of PTI birthday challenge. Crossing my fingers. :)

Best Friend Forever

You know, when I look at my stash of stamp, there's a few company that stands out. Meaning, I have a lot of their sets.

My top 5 (in the order of the amount of sets I have) are Papertrey Ink, Wplus9, Mama Elephant, Technique Tuesday and Avery Elle. And, currently, growing rapidly are my stash from My Favorite Thing & SugarPea Designs.

For my card today, I combined 2 of my favorites. Papertrey Ink & Mama Elephant. I actually made this card sometime last year & totally forgot about it. 

Yep, I was cleaning up  my folder and realized that I have quite a few cards that I haven't share here. So, I'll be sharing those cards slowly or use them as back up for post when I don't have time to craft.

Be back tomorrow with new MFT sketch challenge!

Count Your Blessings

Surprise... surprise... more watercolor card. ;) I think on many card making blog right now, you see plenty of watercolor project.  I wonder how long the trend will last. But, as of right now, I am just enjoying practicing what I learned.

For today's card, I applied what I learned from Tasnim Ahmed on day 8 of the watercolor class. What I love about this class, it makes me look at my stash of old sets and see a new way to use them. This rose is one of my favorite from Papertrey Ink.

I used three different shades of pink and purple to color the rose. The sentiment is from Reverse Confetti. 

I went to the doctor yesterday to figure out what's wrong and they're running some test. I am soooo done feeling nauseous and having heartburn constantly in the past few day. Wonder how I can still make card while feeling sick? This is my therapy. I can forget how awful I am feeling when I just concentrate on creating. 

Last night, actually was a good night in the fact that I actually able to sleep. But, in the morning I open my mouth too soon. I was like oh, I am feeling great. Then a few minutes after it all came back with a vengeance. The problem is I have to keep eating  here and there to control my heartburn, but with feeling nauseous I have no appetite and have to force myself to eat & keep it down. Plain oatmeal is my best friend right now.

Anyway, I am keeping my finger cross and chugging along, hoping we can find out the culprit and fix it. That's it from me. I'll see you all later.

Watercolor Homework

This week, a few days behind, I decided to sign up for Online Card Classes for their watercolor class. Boy, it is a fun class. So glad that I signed up. I get to learn some new technique and I found combining stamping with watercolor can be quite relaxing.

Well, my first card that I created using what I learned from the class is homework from day 3, which is watercolor stamping and this is the result.

On my process, I think I messed up about 4 panel before I finally find a design that I am happy with. And, once I start, I couldn't stop. This class totally make me look at the stamp sets I have with new eyes. 

This weekend been a pretty productive one. I accomplished  several DT works and created some watercolor cards just for fun. I'll be sharing them throughout the week. 

Thank you for stopping by here and may your Mother's Day be an amazing one. Cheers....

Stamping Royalty: Honorable Mention

Slightly over a week ago, I was on pin and needles waiting to see if I am lucky enough to get in for Stamping Royalty again. I won Stamping Royalty back in 2012 in Birthday category and decided to try my luck again. To my delight....., this happened!

 

 

 

Yep, yep .... I am one of the 5 girls who got picked for 2014 Stamping Royalty Honorable Mention. And, when the July issue come out, people get to vote on the card for their favorite. Congrats to all the Honorable Mention girls!! I am honored to share this with all these talented girls.

 

And, thank you to Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking! To celebrate & show my gratitude, I have this thank you card to share:

 

 

Thank you for sharing my excitement and may your week starts off wonderfully!

Radiant Neon Blog Hop

Hi everyone and welcome to Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko & Card Maker radiant neon blog hop. You sh ould arrive here from Nancy Hawes blog.

I am so excited when I found out about this hop. Tsukineko is well known for their great quality products and I've been using their products for years. When I received the neon ink pads, I couldn't wait to get inky and these ink pads do not disappoint! The colors are brilliant.

Since, I've been into flowers lately, I decided to make a bright color flowery card.

I just love this radiant neon collection. The juicy pad gives even coverage and stamp wonderfully. To tone down the bright flowers a bit, I used chalk for the center of the flowers "AND BLEND" (psst... this is my electric word that you need to collect!) it with cotton ball. And, of course, I have to add a little bit of gold by adding a gold strip to fancy up the card a little bit. Bright, bold and beautiful is the goal. What do you think?

Also, Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko is hosting a giveaway of a full set of Radiant Neon ink pads. To enter for a chance to win, please visit each blog and collect a word or set of words to complete a sentence. Full details of the giveaway will be on Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko blog.

From here, please hop on over to Debbie Gaetz. In case you miss any link,you can always find the complete list of participant at CardMaker blog. Thank you so much for stopping by here. Enjoy your Friday. :)

A Thousand Rainbow

Hi everyone and happy Monday. I finally get to play and try out the techniques I learned from Clean & Simple 3 class. 

My mojo is no where to be found at the moment, so I just follow the sample as shown by the super talented Laura Bassen. Her style is simply amazing. And, here's my card casing her card.

 

I am love the cheerful colors on this card. Once my mojo come back, I plan on trying this technique again. For now... my mind is on tax. Yup, time for that stressful time of  trying to get our tax ready. Tax can totally kill creative mood like no one's business, don't you think?

 

I know... I am whining. LOL, but I sure do hate doing tax. Even getting all the receipts ready is pain! Well, I better get busy. Hope your week starts off fabulously! 

 

You Are Loved

Hi peeps. I am so sorry that I am behind in announcing the winner from WCMD Thank You Hop. So, without further delay, the winner of my giveaway is........... MARCI COLLINS!!

Congrats, Marcy. Please email me your mailing address.

BTW, have you seen the latest Card Creations, Vol. 12? If you haven't, run and get one! Okay, maybe don't run, drive. LOL. There's many, many awesome inspirations in this one magazine. I have sticky note all over this one.

And, I am excited to share that I have 5 cards published in this one. Here's one of the card. I picked this one to share here, since it's so springy and I am ready for spring.

 

 

I do love the way this card turned out. I basically create my own stencil using my ever reliable Mr. C (Silhouette Cameo). Once I cut the diagonal stripe  background, I used sponge dauber to dab in colors in the opening. And, using matching color, I stamped the flowers from Papertrey Ink Mini Blooms set into the wood veneer butterfly. The sentiment is from Elle's Studio.

 

Oh yes.... guess what?? Tomorrow we'll have a fun Card Creations Blog Hop to celebrate this issue!!  Hope you'll join the hop and I'll see you tomorrow.

 

Oh, oh... one more thing...., I am up on i {heart} papers blog today. I'd love for you to check it out. Thanks so much.

PTI Sweet Spring Blog Hop

Yay! It's that time of the month. Time for Papertrey Ink blog hop and I am so glad that my order came just in time so I can play along using the new goodies. Gotta say, PTI really rock it with their birthday releases. So many awesome goodness.

I love the flower cluster on the bottom corner from the above pic and use that as my inspiration. I love the new Garden Bouquet set and combined it with the fun Circle Scribbles set.

I can see myself playing with these 2 sets often. They are simply so much fun to play with. So, what's your favorite from this releases?

I know you have many blogs to check out, so let me keep it sweet & short. Thank you for stopping by here and can't wait to see what everyone else created.

You Are Too Kind

At first, I wasn't sure if I'll be able to squeeze in another card for Papertrey Ink celebration. But, at the end, the challenge is too much fun for me not to try.

The challenge is to create a card based on nine design building blocks collected from PTI design team.

My card building blocks:

From Ashley: color: Hawaiian Shores

From Betsy: color: Sweet Blush

From: Cristina: color: Aqua Mist

From Danielle: neutral color: White
From Dawn: Sketch #1
From Erin: theme: thank you
From Heather: technique: spray mist
From Laura: embellishment: glitter

From Melissa: fiber: thread

Hm... I have nothing else to write. My mind just went blank and the Olympic is going on. Well, that's it then. Ciao....

PTI Birthday Challenge

As Papertrey Ink birthday bash continue full steam, I decided to play again with the color & recipe challenge. This time, I picked this color combo and sketch.

I stretch this sketch into my own interpretation. Instead of flowers, for the corner images I went with cute squirrel & birthday balloons.

After I am done with the card, I realized that I actually used images and sentiment from 5 different sets. And, the card still has a CAS look. Am pretty impress with  myself. LOL.

Well, that's it. Just a quick post. :)

Olympic Fever

Good morning and happy Monday! Is your household catching the winter Olympic fever? We do. I love the Olympics. I think it's a great event that brings people from all around the world together. Granted, this one has many cloud over it, but I like to focus just on the positive part and the athletes.

Especially the athletes. I respect all of them regardless where they come from. Hats off especially to those from 3rd world countries. Some of them don't have the luxury of doing this for life where they can just focus on training. Many are doing hard, labor job (I forgot from which country, but the guy day time job is a brick layer) and some has to raise money to even be able to make the trip or to even have equipment.

My dad was an athlete (he was a wrestler) from 3rd world country, and no, he didn't get to reach the Olympic stage, but he did reached the Asian Games stage and from him I learned the many hardship that athletes from poor countries have to over come.

For me, Olympic is not just about watching the game. I like learning about the the people, their background, their stories. The people's stories are inspiring and makes me cheer for them regardless where they are from.

Whoops... there I went all over the place. This blog supposed to be about crafting, right? But, hey what can I say, life is more than just crafting. Anyhoo..... besides watching the Olympic, I did play a little bit in my craft room as well.

I decided to play along with Papertrey Ink Color & Sketch Recipe Card challenge. I picked this color combo and this sketch.

And, came up with this bright card:

If my mojo not running away, I might re-try this combo and do a different card. But, we'll see. Between work and Olympic, crafting time might be limited. See ya......

Happy Birthday Papertrey Ink

Papertrey Ink is really pulling all the stop for their 7th celebration. Every day there's fun challenges and giveaway. For today, the challenge is to create birthday card for Papertrey Ink.

So, without further delay, here's my card:

I love the way this card turned out. The black and white patterned combined with the bright yellow flower really makes the flower pop-up, don't you agree?

From all this celebration, I did win one of the contest on the PTI forum and get one of my card featured on their website. To say I was elated is an understatement. :) Here's a screen snapshot I took of the site:

See the rose card? Yep, that's my card. Originally it was published on Paper Crafts magazine and now it belongs to my brother and SIL as I sent this card for their anniversary. It was one of my favorite card and I am thrilled to see it up on PTI website. 

That's it from me. Enjoy your Sunday afternoon. Cheers....

PTI Timer Challenge

Papertrey Ink birthday celebration continue with lots of fun challenges. For today, it's Timer challenge, with rules of using 7 supplies create a card under 17 minutes.

Of course, I easily turn to my go to CAS style. The rules of 7 supplies pretty much fall to 7 items you grab to create your project. So, the 7 items I grab:

1. Cardstock
2. Stamp set
3. Blue ink pad

4. Gold ink pad

5. Stickler

6. Black ink pad
7. Gold vellum

I simply love this feather set. With this set you can create simple & fast card or you can also do fancy card. Well, that's it for today's post. Off to check out what others created for this challenge. :)

Stencil Day 1

Lately, you see more and more project using stencil and just for fun I decided to join Jennifer McGuire's Stenciled Online Classes.

I don't own many stencil, but my Silhouette Cameo solve that problem easily. I simply make my own stencil by cutting background pattern on acetate piece and use it as stencil.

One of the first stencil I made is this triangular background and use it as a mask and use the sponging technique. Well, actually I combined 2 techniques from the lesson from day 1. Sponging and layering and masking.

For the tag I used Mama Elephant dies and the bird is from Papertrey Ink. I am glad I join this class. Because, even though I know many of the techniques, I forgot about it and the class help me remembering them and I've been having a blast rediscovering old techniques.

You can bet that you'll see many more projects from me using stencil. :) Well, that's all from me this weekend. Thank you for stopping by here.

PTI January blog Hop

This month PTI blog hop inspiration pic is so pretty that I just have to play along. Totally love all the pink and gold. Luckily, my order arrive yesterday, so I can play with one of the new sets for this hop.

I know I want the feather set the moment I saw the sneak peek. 

For the dots on top of the feathers, I used gold pearl-ex to create the soft gold accent. Right now, there's tons of feather sets out there, but I have to say that this one is my favorite just because it has the dots clusters that make decorating this feather a snap. 

Well, I know you have lots of blog to hop to, so I am keeping this post short. Can't wait to check everyone else's projects. 

Oh, also, I have some people asking me for the recipe I use to make my on embossing paste (see my previous post), It's very easy. 

Embossing paste recipe:

-Acrylic paint
-Baby powder

- Mod Podge

- Air tight container

You want to mix 1 part acrylic paint, 1 part baby powder and 1/3 part mod podge. Now, I ended up adding a bit more baby powder because I want my paste to be thicker and not so runny. It's better to start with the recipe, then add more powder as needed. Hope this help and let  me know if you do try this recipe and have any question. Thank you so much for swinging by here.

Merry Christmas

Dear all, I just want to wish you all a wonderful Christmas filled with love and joy. May you all have a lovely time with your family and friends.

Despite the distance between us, I still get to celebrate Christmas with my family in Indonesia, thanks to Skype. My brother, SIL and my mom called before midnight and I get to chat with them and even see when my younger brother & his family arrived for the celebration.

Seriously, amazing how far technology has come. It means so much to me to be able to see their faces, including my super cute & adorable niece who now can give me kiss bye. :) Of all things I treasure in life, my family relationship is what I treasured the most. I am blessed and so thankful to have such a close knit family.

I hope as Christmas come and goes, you keep  your family close at heart as well and keep the CHRISTmas spirit in your heart all through the year.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours. :)

Moxie Fab: In Transition

When I first saw this week Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger: In Transition inspiration pic, I wasn't sure if I want to play along or not. Here's the inspiration pic:

I think it was because at the beginning I was too focus on the stripe. Then, I saw CASE Study challenge # 157 and suddenly it struck me how I want to do this challenge. Love it when 2 challenges work it ways into 1 card.

And, this is what I came up with:

This time instead of focusing on the line, I focus on how the color change. To create this card, I first cut the herringbone pattern background using my Silhouette. Then I used it as a template/mask. Using the sponge dauber I dab the colors one by one. I love how the bright color combo make this into such a happy card.

Then I stamped the sentiment on a piece of vellum and adhere the vellum to the card. Added a couple enamel dots. You know.... I resisted this enamel dots for so long and now I am hooked! Love it more than rhinestone or pearl sticker.

Bright color card makes me happy. :) Hope your weekend been a happy one!

Now That's My Cup of Tea

Hmm... I think there's some changes with me lately. Usually I am not one that often do cards with flowers on it. But, with all the gorgeous flower stamps that been coming out, I find myself reaching for the flower sets more and more. :)

For today's card I was inspired by Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger Now That's My Cup of Tea. 

                                            

In my head the plate color would make the perfect background color, so I based my card from there. The white of the cup makes the flower pattern stands out and gives a clean look and since I know I want to do flower cluster, I want my sentiment to stand out, thus I do the sentiment in white.

The vine pattern on the patterned paper is pretty soft, so I can use it without making the card too busy. The flowers are from Papertrey Ink. I just got my order from PTI, so this weekend I play with PTI a lot. :)

That's it from me today. I have massage and brunch plan with my girlfriends, so I better get going. Thank you for swinging by here. Have a blessed Sunday, everyone!