Making Memories Guest Designer

Hi peeps. Today I am the guest designer at Making Memories blog. So excited and grateful to have this opportunity to create some projects for them. For my projects I get to play with Making Memories Panorama set. Love it!! I created 4 projects total, although easily I could make more. I have another layout already in progress. Can't stop playing with this set!

For details on all the project please check Making Memories Blog. Would so appreciate it if you would leave some love on their blog as well as over here. I really appreciate everyone's support. 

Here's my layout that I created for Making Memories. This layout is of my trip to Pulau Penyu (Turtle Island) when I was on vacation in Bali with my mom and my brother, Jerry in 2006. This place is a turtle preservation habitat and only reachable by boat. It was an amazing experience to be so upclose and learned about the turtles. I handwritten the journal and your eyes didn't trick you, I do have small hand writing. :)

Next, I have the travel journal. I love how my travel journal turned out. The patterned paper itself is gorgeous. All the embellishments were created from the cut out from one of the patterned paper. I attached the two small embellishements that has the word "How Time Flies" and "Joy" using pop dots and added thread to close the journal. The pop-dot provide a space for the thread to go around.

Now, the cards. I simply love how this first card look. The patterned paper was so gorgeous and has beautiful shine to it.

Here's the second card. The car is made using Papertrey Ink stamp & matching die. I really used that one patterned paper that has all these embossed signs. Except for the above card, I use something from this patterned paper to decorate all the projects.

Hope you like the projects. I was so giddy when Making Memories asked me if I'd be interested to be their guest designer and I hope I didn't disappoint them. If you find me through their blog please let me know. I love reading your comments and appreciate them very much.

Also, Friday, Mami Doodles will be hosting our first blog hop & there will be digi stamp giveaway. I'll have all the details on Friday! Have a super duper great hump day peeps. Hugs, Vera.

Hedgehog & Bird Cards

I am thrilled to find out that my ribbon fish card (see my blog header) caught the eye of the May Arts peeps. They chose my card as the winning card for "Ribbon on Card Contest". I almost missed the announcement here.  Thank goodness, I checked my planner. LOL, yes, I am one of those people that have planner, but sometime forgot to check it.

As far as I can remember I always have either a journal or a planner, and I always have the good intention of being organized by writing things down. I am good at that. I am just not that good at actually checking the planner on time. :) What can I say, everybody have their ditzy moment, right?!

Today, I have 2 cards for you. The first card, is for Clean & Simple FTL 102 and for Paper Cutz Challenge 53, which is to use monkey, squirrel, or hedgehog. Also entering this card for:
Cute Card Thursday 124: Whateva
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge 35: Anything Goes

If you have followed me for awhile, then you know I am partial to hedgehog. Why?? See the cute critter on the pic below.

Peeps, for you who haven't meet my smallest baby, here's Coco the hedgehog. I got her for Christmas 2008. She tends to be grumpy when you just woke her up. But, once she know it's me or hubby, she'll relax and all her quills will be down. Isn't she adorable? I am not sure how old she is. Found her through the rescue place. Anyway, this cute face is the reason I love hedgehog, the real thing and the stamps.

Now the second card is inspired by Embellish Magazine Color Challenge & bird. This pic came out kind of washed. I'll have to take new pic and change the pic later this evening.

And tomorrow, I'll be the guest designer at Making Memories blog. I have several stuff to share with you. Please come by tomorrow and if you stop by here today, please take the time to leave a comment. I read all the comments and really appreciate every single one of them. Have a great blessed day!

Taylored Expressions Card

Hi all, how's your weekend? I hope you had a pleasant & enjoyable weekend. It was quite a busy weekend for me. Saturday, I finished my project for Making Memories. They'll be sharing my projects on their blog this Wednesday. So excited for the opportunity to create for them.

Sunday, I met my girlfriends, Joy & Les for brunch and a movie. We were going to see Salt, but ended up watching Step Up in 3D instead. LOL, yes we're cheesy like that. My girlfriend, Joy loves to dance and pretty much as soon as the movie start and the first song playing, she can't help but start moving to the song. It was entertaining movie and the dance movement was just amazing. I wish I could dance like that! :)

Then in the evening, I get to play in my messy scrapbook room. Right now, I have stuff everywhere. On the table and on the floor. Anyway, at CHA, I bought this cute stamp from Taylored Expressions. My 1st Taylored Expressions stamp ever! And decided to play along their Taylored Expressions Sketch 123 challenge.  This is their sketch:

And here's my card:

I just love how adorable this stamp looks. Colored the image with Copic markers. Sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. Pattern paper are from my scrap stash. I am really going to try my hardest to use up my scrap isntead of keep cutting the new ones. Trying to be more green here. :)

I am also entering this card for these other challenges:

Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge 35 - Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday #124 - Whateva

Dutch Dare Chalenge 29 - Anything Goes

Have a great Monday! May your week start wonderfully! Hugs, Vera.

Wee Memories Challenge #17

Aah... Saturday. Don't you just love weekend? I plan to be quite productive today. Some of my plans include going to the library, finish my project for Making Memories, taking pic for a tutorial, cleaning the house, and organize my scrabook room. Although in all honesty, I doubt the last one will happen. LOL. Seem like I always have the good intention to organize it, but as soon as I start pulling stuff out it's all a mess again.

I have new card for you for Wee Memories Challenge. This time our challenge theme is "BUTTERFLIES".  For my card I used Papertrey Ink butterfly set. The layout for this card is inspired by Maylee (Cas-tastic DT) card. Their challenge is to case their design team and I just love the way Maylee's card look.

I sure love dots. I think I love them more now than I ever did. I used to buy only stripes patterned paper. It started from Bo Bunny Dots paper, then with Papertrey Ink Dots Background set, and now I just love patterned paper that has dots. They're just so pretty and fun.

If you have some crafty time plan please, join us at Wee Memories Challenge! Check the blog to see all the DT works. These gals will inspire you with their adorable cards. I am so lucky to be working along these talented ladies. Hope your weekend is filled with all the good stuff!

Car issue

Pheww, I had quite a day yesterday. On our way to work (hubby and I carpool, since we work for the same company), in the middle of the HOV lane, suddenly my car battery light went on. I was like, what's going on? First thought, the light was just acting up. Next thing we know, the temperature light went on, followed by another light, etc., with all  the warning sound beeping. I looked at the temp needle it was all the way to H. Not close to, but all the way up there!

I freaked out, and asked hubby if he thinks our car going to blow up. Who knows, all  the warning lights were on. He said exit the carpool line as soon as we can. Anyway, we found a parking spot, turned off the car, called AAA. Love them, by the way. While waiting, we checked the car, try to re-start it after a while, now it's totally dead. Mind you, it's Texas, so even 8.30am, it was smoking hot, peeps! Was not fun! I do thank my guardian angel for watching over us, cause if we had not stop when we did, we would have fried our transmission completely.

Needless to say, called the boss and asked for day off so we can take care of the car and do some car shopping. We've been thinking of getting a new car, but was hoping that we can still get another year on my "Bu" (that's what a friend of ours called my Chevy Malibu Max). No such luck. By the end of the day, I am the proud owner of a new Hyundai Tucson. What really sold us on the car is really their 10 years or 100,000 miles warranty. I am not too happy about having a car payment, but we need dependable car. Now, from Bu to Blue. That's what I decided to call my new ride "Blue". I chose a bluish silver colors instead of plain silver and I thought it looks nice. Hopefully this wouldn't interfere with my stamping budget. LOL, I got my priority here, people! It was a stressful day.

Let's move on to cards, shall we? When I met Paulina from DeNami Design at CHA, I told her now that I know about DeNami and their cute stamp, I will start entering their challenge. Their latest challenge is all about glitters. She does love glitters. I think most of her card sample at CHA has glitters and they were awesome. So, here's my card for DeNami Product Challenge 3 in combination with Moxie Fab Signs of Peace Challenge.

I used my Silhouette to cut the peace signs & colord them with Copic. I thought this card turned out pretty cute! Totally adore that turtle. I really, really love anything turtle related. Except for when my car was moving like a turtle! :) Oh yeah, the idea for this card was that those stacked peace signs supposed to be birthday cake with the turtle as the cake topper. That was the idea for this groovy birthday cake card. 

Then, on Facebook, Samantha Walker who designed for Silhouette has a challenge to create a project using her design. I love her cute design, so of course I have to join & play along. :) Here's my card using her cute car design and CPS sketch 178. I think yesterday car issue made me think of making a card that has car on it. LOL.

Hope you like both of the cards I have for today. Tomorrow, I'll have new fun challenge for you from Wee Memories. Come back tomorrow & join us. Have a super duper great Friday! Hugs, Vera.

Paper Play & DDSB Challenge

Thursday!! Yay... I am so ready for the weekend already. How about you peeps? This week has been such whirlwind. Between the stress from work, me PMS-ing, it just simply been quite a week. Definitely counting the hours to Friday 5pm. I'll probably hang out with my girl friend this weekend and I'm looking forward to that!

Anyway, I have two new challenges for you today. The first one is from Paper Play Challenges. By the way, last week we did anything goes challenge, we had 444 entries. I think by day 3 of the challenge we had almost 300?? That's scary and awesome at the same time. LOL, scary in the meaning of the amount of blog we had to cheack out. Awesome because it's nic eto see you gals loves our challenges. :)

Now, this week our challenge is to create a project using 2 patterned paper, 3 flowers, 1 ribbon, and a charm. We're sponsored by Stitchy Bear Stamps who provided us with some digi stamp to play with. I chose their fairy image.

I didn't have a small charm  to use, so I used my Making Memories charm. It's a bit big, so instead of dangling it, I put it off to the side of the flower. See that white heart peeking out? The charm was silver, but I dabbed it with white inkpad & embossed it with clear embossing powder to seal the color in. I also added stitches all around the border.

My other challenge is Digi Doodle Shop's Best (DDSB) challenge. Easy peasy challenge. Create a card using your favorite stamp. Since I'm representing DDSB, of course I picked my favorite stamp from their line, which is this cute owl. He's just so cute! I used Mojo Monday sketch 150 for this card.

I rubbed some chalks on the circle area to create a soft shading. The patterned papers are from Kaiser Krafts and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. And of course, I had to use the wiggly eyes for the owl to make him look even cuter.

I hope you will join me for Paper Play & DDSB challenges. Have a super duper great Thursday! And, if you live in super hot area like me, try to stay cool!

MyGrafico Challenge 60

Hi peeps! Notice something different?? I decided to update my blog header. I actually made 2 version. One with the letters in blue grey, which I currently used, and the other one in green. What do you think? I think this new design has cleaner look than my previous one. Kind of loving this new look.

It's Wednesday, so it's time for another MyGrafico challenge. This week the DT get to work with the Mel Brushes "Wild flower set". And the challenge is to create vintage or distressed card. This truly is a challenge for me. If you have followed me for awhile, you know I don't do vintage card. Totally not my style.

Making distressed looking card stressed me out. Here's my card. The closest I came in making vintage looking card.

I keep feeling like I need to clean up those edges. LOL. What do you think peeps? Yay or nay? And I decided to add some buttons, so I can enter this card for EBTKS Challenge 20 as well.

I hope you will join us for MyGrafico challenge. You can find all  the details here and you can win free digital stamp, too! Here's a peek of what's included in  the Wildflower set.

After all  the stress of trying to make vintage card, I tried to get my mojo back by making my typical cute stuff. :) On my previous post I metioned I found this cute ducky stamp at CHA. Well, here he is. I think he's a cutie pie!

I made this card using Maren's sketch for Skipping Stones Design Challenge 36 (my 1st time entering their challenge). I met Maren at CHA and she's just the cutest girl with bundles of energy. She entertained the crowd at Paper Crafts booth with her enthusiasm and she's just so nice and adorable.

Thank you for stopping by here. I really appreciate all your wonderful comments & encouragemet. Have a great Wednesday!

CHA - Day 2 Continue

Let's continue the report on my amazing CHA advnture, shall we? I didn't get to talk about the make and take. There were lots of them. And have to say that most of them were pretty cute make & take. I didn't bother with any of the sewing related or t-shirt dye make & take like that. I stick to paper craft related. Except, I did make a super cute button ring. Although, I forgot to include it in this pic that show some of the make & take that I did.

At Splitcoast Stamper booth I made the grunge bracelet (upper left corner, below the bird card). I think that's the most grungey thingy I ever made. LOL, you know me, I usually do clean looking stuff. We were using Tim Holtz products and that bracelet does look pretty cool. In person, you could see some shimmer on it as we layered some pearly dabber.

I love the card we made at Taylored Expression booth (pink one with the bird). And Taylor herself is so cute. I didn't get a chance to take picture with her though. I also really love the card and mini book I made at Kaiser Kraft booth. They're  very generous with their make & take, and they have awesome customer service.

To my surprise, they weren't that many vendor selling papers. Only a few. But I did manage to get some super cute American Crafts, Pebbles In My Pocket, & My Mind Eyes papers. But, there were tons of them that sell stamps and card making related stuff.

I was delighted to check out Crafters's Companion, a UK based company. When I was in UK, I loved going to their stationery stores and bought a bunch of card that has cutest animals, that's so UK style for me. Usually you don't see their product here in the US. So, I was browsing at their booth and saw this Popcorn bear image with his ducky companion. I immediately recognized it as the images from 1 of my favorite card that I purchased in London. Me.., cute ducky..., oh, there's no way to deny it, instant attraction!

I want to cuddle the duckie because it's sooo darn cute! Even better the whole set was only $6.95 and there were lots of stamps in 1 set. The power of asking question. I asked the lady is there's any special, she saw that I have 3 sets already on my hand and she said you can get 4 for $20. I was like, done! I'll have 4 sets, thank you very much. And LOL, talking with her I easily get influenced by her accents, I started talking with that accent for a bit. Heh... :) Here's pic of some of the goodies I got at CHA. Not all of them. :)

See that tape on the bottom left corner. I got a whole box of 12 for only $10 (it was $20 before). They are "Love My Tapes" adhesive. I was featured on their blog back in April and I truly love their adhesive. Best adhesive, especially for sheer or thin ribbon. And they're refillable. I chatted with Jong, the owner, as Shemaine who's their designer already left, and he also offered me great deal on  the washi tape. Yay! Go check out their web-site for some yummy washi tapes. You'll love them!

I also got some more Copic markers. Now here, the vendor was sooo nice compared to the one at CKC Houston. They let us checked out the color & the price was great as well. So happy I get to expand my Copic collection. I waited over a year here to expand my collection. And they offer free shipping on Copic markers!! No minimum purchase necessary. For the life of me, I can't remember the vendor name, but if you want their information, email me. I have their information in my pile that  need to be organized. :)

I got other misc. stuff here and there. I am a responsible shopper. I guess that's why my husband never worried when I went on shopping spree. He knows my shopping spree is never outrageous one. LOL. I bought stuff that I know I can't get easily or from company that usually have high shipping cost. The rest, I save it for later.

Earlier I mentioned how Kaiser Kraft have awesome customer service. I couldn't find their ink cube to buy, so I ask them about it. She said hold on a second and came back with this box full of ink cubes. I was like can I buy it from you? She said no and gave me some ink cubes and a stamp set to try. By the time I left, practically they gave away bunch of cardstock, glue, etc., not just to me but lots of the other customers. Now, is that not great service? Below is pic of the goodies from them.

All in all, the CHA experience is awesome. Meeting all the fabulous blog friends was exiciting and fun. Have to admit the card making community is a pretty tight knit community that filled with wonderful peeps. I told hubby I'd like to go at least once. Now, I am thinking I should do it every year. LOL.

OK, here's a card for you. I made this card for Play Date Cafe Challenge 40, which is to use black and white with a hint of green. I loved the way this card  turned out. I think it's my first elegant card! Can't remember if I ever made one that look like this. Usually, not a fan of black & white for cards, I think I am converted now. It's quick, easy to make with awesome result (at least I think so, heh...). Also made this for Hero Arts August challenge.

Wow, three days in a row of long post. I hope you enjoy reading the posts. Thank you so much for stopping by and I sure hope I can meet many of you who visits my blog in person one of this day. Have a great Tuesday peeps! Ciaoo..! :)

CHA - Day 2 Report

Happy Monday, peeps! Are you ready for my CHA - day 2 report? Gonna be a long one!! I'll split it & save some story for tomorrow's post as well. :)  My day start at 1.05am. Yep, as in 1 in the morning!! My MIL, her sister, and me shared the room. Well, they both snore = me... no sleep. I kept tossing & turning, by 3am, I started to text hubby. Of course, he didn't get them till he woke up much later.

Thank goodness for iphone! I ended up browsing online, played game, and around 4 something I finally fell asleep. Then 5.20am, my MIL woke up. I woke up with her and she told me to go back to sleep, and I just pointed my finger to their bed, where her sister still blisfully asleep & snoring (love ya, Aunt Flo!!). She laughed & we decided to look for coffee downstairs, while her sister stayed in. It was nice though, I get to catch up with  my MIL.

When the show started. I shopped around, chatted with the Paper Crafts peeps again and they all signed my Gallery Idol card, except for Cath (Moxie Fab) as she wasn't around and later, I kept on missing her. At one point, Susan told me Cath was in while I was waiting at a make & take. The Paper Crafts gals are the best! They're so warm, funny, and just plain fun to talk to. Loved them!!

Anyway, I was going to see Cath after my make & take, except when I stood up, I feel like I am going to pass out. I think that's what 3 hours of sleep & empty stomach do to your body. LOL. Needless to say, I missed Cath, as I rushed back to the hotel to get some food in me. :)

After some rest, I got my second wind. Went back for more shopping. Heh... Loved shopping. Highlight of day 2??? See this pic??

Debbie, Mish, Heather, me, Nichole, Jennifer, & Dawn.

Me lovey Papertrey Ink!!!

Yep, me and all the Papertrey Ink gals! I wanted to jump up and down! It started with me saying hi to Jennifer Ellefson. We went way back. We were on the DT together for Simply Sentiments magazine in 2003-2004. We started to chat and then she said let me introduce you to the whole group. Eeekkkk....

And when I asked if we could take picture, Jennifer lined everybody up! Thank you Jennifer! I get to chatted with Dawn for awhile. Loved Dawn! She's sooo pretty and so sweet. And then, Nichole offered some stamp cleaners. She told me to get as many as I want, but since I only bring carry on and doesn't want to get stop by homeland security, I told her I just have 1. :) This company has the best peeps!

With Jennifer (Papertrey Ink)

Oh yes, they all signed my Papertrey notepad as well. And they gave the sweetest message & encouragement. Simply love them!! The kind of company t hat I would love to work for. I'll post about the make & take & all the goodies on tomorrow post.

I do have a couple cards to share with you, using my new DeNami stamp. Loved Paulina & Nami, amazing mother daughter duo. I love turtle. Kind of collecting things that turtle realted actually. So, as soon as I saw this stamp, there's no thinking required, I have to have it!! I used their sketch from their last challenge and since this is cute as can be, I have to enter this for Moxie Fab Fun & Cute challenge as well and the CAS-tastic Bling It Up challenge.

Close-up view to show the glittery outline

And, I can't stop using this cutie. Made another 1 using CPS 178 sketch. Again as this cute this go to Moxie Fab Fun & Cute and also Clean & Graphic challenge.

Are you still here?? If yes, thank you for reading all the way to the bottom. LOL. I know it's a super long post. Will share more tomorrow. Thank you all for stopping by. Any comments, thought, question about CHA, just let me know. Happy Monday!!

CHA - Day 1 Report

Hi peeps! Happy Sunday! Wow, my CHA trip was AMAZING!! I get to meet so many people. I just love the friendship that's formed through this creative outlet of card making.

Today I want to share my 1st day experience at CHA. I arrived Friday morning around 11. My flight arrived a bit early, which is good. Head straight to Hyatt O'Hare, checked-in, stored my carry-on luggage & off I went to CHA! First girlI noticed was cute Paulina (Pretty Pink Posh) from DeNami Design. I learned that her mom, Nami designed all their stamps and all  the cards at their booth were all made by Paulina. Her designs rock! Their booth definitely has the most cards sample.

After saying hi to her, I looked for Paper Crafts booth & said hi real quick to Maren Benedict, one of PC Go To Gals. She's so adorable & very energetic. Since she had line of people waiting, I told her I'll come back later on the day to take picture with her. :) And I met Shemaine from Love My Tapes, who's also HA Flickr girl.

Kelly Marie, me, and Paulina. Amazing gals. Love them!!

Went back to shop at DeNami booth, guess who else stopped by, but the super cute Kelly Marie owner of Lawn Fawn stamps! She's so friendly, down to earth, simply amazing girl! So happy I get to meet and hang out with her a bit. I even get to share my Gallery Idol card with her and she also signed it for me! Heh... Yes, I am that nerdy. But she designed amazing stamps, that are so much fun to work with.

A few of the hundreds of card samples at Denami booth, all by Paulina.

Next stop, Splitcoast Stampers booth! Made the coolest grunge bracelet with Diana from Eclectic Paperie. Meet with Lynette Kauffman, another talented card maker. I tried to go in toPapertrey Ink booth. You wouldn't believe the line to get in to this booth. So, I only made their make & take instead and came back for shopping later on the day. I did get a pic with the super sweet Dawn from PTI. Loved, loved her! She's so nice & friendly. Her designs always one of my favorite at PTI line.

With Dawn, she's just the sweetest!

Then, I met Belinda Chang & her friend Ren-Yi.  And what a small world, when Ren-Yi shared that her dad was born in Medan, where I was born, too. The 3 of us hanged out for a while. While shopping at My Favorite Things (Belinda was such an enabler, she showed me the cutest banner die from them, that I just have to buy!), I saw Rae Barthel, last year Gallery Idol winner.

And, she's soooo cool & so sweet! She introduced me to the rest of Paper Crafts gals. Cath (Moxie Fab - yay... I have Moxie Fab badge now!), Susan, and Jennifer. They're all so nice & friendly. Meeting them truly made my day.

With the super energetic & cute Maren.

Cath (Moxie Fab!), me, & Jennifer

My first day went by so quick. Oh yes, not to forget, I also met Latrice, one of the HA Flickr girl. Not only she's a card maker, she makes awesome jewelry, too!

Me, Belinda (Gallery Idol 2010), & Latrice. 

Phew... that's a long post! There's just so many wonderful  things I can say about CHA. Thank you hubby for making me go! Tomorrow I'll be back with report of my 2nd day at CHA! Have a great super duper Sunday! Hugs!!!!