Lots of pink colors!

HB056

This was a request from my Mom's friend :). This was probably one of the fasted custom made pop up cards I've ever made because I didn't have any guideline for it.....no particular request, therefore I had total freedom to do whatever I want....whatever my heart desires. :) Don't you just love it when that happens? hehehe.....well I for one love that freedom a lot!

I recently bought this soft sweet pink paper and wanted desperately to use it in one of my designs. So I thought this was the perfect opportunity! Yay! With those big flowers as my inspiration, I just thought of a certain color combination that would fit the color of the card and went along with my instinct. Thus this design was created!

I personally love pop up design inside.....not the flowers, but the part where the stalk of the flowers were woven into the pop up itself. It's like a basket weave you see. I've made an effort to do that technique before. And now, once again here but the difference was, I pasted another layer of paper on the pop up to make it more sturdy. But the thickness of two layers of paper made it difficult for me to weave it. Nonetheless, the pop p was a success.......I manage to do it!! I am so happy about it. I even added the lovely butterflies.....cute! Hope the receiver of this card will love it too! :)

A remake of JFY002

JFY003

Gosh....how long has it been since I last made a "Just For You" card? Pretty long!! hehehe! I have not been making any for a long long time......this year, I received a request to make a birthday card and my customer knew what he wanted already. But....he wanted the card to have the same design as the design I made for this JFY002. So.....that is how the front design will look like.....but the inside would have a pop up with birthday wishes in it. I informed him that it's kinda difficult to do that pop up he wanted on a small card because that JFY002 is only 10.4cm x 14.7 cm. So later he agreed to do it on a bigger card thus how this size came about.

To be honest......I am loving this new design much better than the old one because this time I get to use the new materials.....such as glitter glue and foam! Yes! I personally feel that it looks much more better this way. But I have not yet made the pop up for it.......it's suppose to be a pop up bouquet of flowers. I will do so soon and blog about it here.

So till then! Will be continued.......hehehehe......

Update on February 2010 Blog giveaway.....

Wow.....I'm getting pretty excited about this month's blog giveaway. There's only two more days left and 2 lucky winners will be announced! :)

I have so far 2 participants who are from overseas......one from Sri Lanka and the other is from USA......they are a bit concerned on whether they are eligible to participate in this humble blog giveaway. Actually, YES! They are eligible! Why not?? My blog giveaway is meant for everyone....here in Malaysia and everywhere else around the world! It doesn't matter where you are from, I will be giving the prizes to you if you are declared the winner :).

Just gotta make sure also that you leave your contact details at your comment.....I mean your email address, so that I can contact you if you are declared the winner. Otherwise, I would have to give the prize to someone else. So please make sure, all rules are followed as stated in the blog giveaway post. :)

I really am so happy that I also got suggestions from the participants who are very supportive and concerned about my card blog. I shall use your suggestions the best way I can. I really appreciate them very much. I love to get feedback from my readers, as this will help me improve my little business here and make it a much more interesting place for my readers to visit and find much pleasure visiting here whenever they have some free time. Thank you so much for all the lovely comments :) . Appreciate them a lot!!!

So, if you are reading this and are interested in participating, quickly go to the Blog giveaway post by clicking HERE and read the rules of the giveaway and leave a comment there to earn your entry! Good luck to all!!!

XOXO,
Lin

Will you be mine...?

V020

Look familiar??? Yup! It's an old design with new paper and new wordings! hehehe! What a way to recycle a good idea huh? I even added a new pop up inside it! :)

I really loved the old Valentines Day card design that I made in 2009. The code is V011. It's a favorite among my customers too. The original design was made using a purple base paper. For this particular card design, I choose to use a red color paper instead. Not dark red....just scarlet red.

The pop up I did for this design is actually a mix of pop ups I've done before. This is the first time I'm doing a V-fold type of pop up for a small card like this one. Usually I would do it on larger sized cards. So the pop up is looking pretty cute and small here....hehehe....

Hope you guys like it! :)

Be Mine Forever....

V019

I wish I could give this card to someone, but I can't because I know he does not like me anyways....huhuhu! It would be pointless to send it to him.....since I already know the answer. :( The design is kinda symbolic in a way.......the way the heart shape foams flows in between the butterflies.....do you guys see what I was trying to convey here in this design?? I wonder if you see it the way I do..... :)

As you can see here......no design has been done for the inside of the card yet.....not even an envelope! ha! I just wanted to share this as soon as I made it........This is the first time also for me to use the butterfly craft punch. I bought it at Tesco in Alor Setar.....it is not a branded craft punch....I was worried that it would not be so good in quality.....luckily it worked out well and it's quite sharp. I can't remember the brand name though as I already threw away the package. But I sure do love the pattern of the butterfly...hence that was why I bought it in the first place hehehe.... :)

My Sweet Love....

V018

I am so loving this card! I wonder if anyone remembers this cupcake design?? It's one of my old Valentines Day designs which I did I think in 2008. Yeah, I think it was in 2008 and the design code is V007. At that time I did not have many different types of materials to work with. Very little creativity and not much tools to create anything much. But now with all kinds of materials available in the market, we can produce a much more interesting design. Although this design doesn't really look so super pretty, but at least I made it a little different in the way I approach the layout and decorations.

What I love most in this design is that I made the top part of the cupcake with red foam. Gosh, you have no idea how much I love using foam in my designs these days. It's so much fun to work with! Plus, you can see that I cut out tiny white foam squares and added them on top of the cupcake as part of the decoration. It's so cute! Love that part a lot!

As you can see, I did not manage to make the envelope yet.......so it's just the card design. Not even a pop up or anything inside yet. It's blank. I will think of something to put inside it later on. If you have any suggestions on what you wish to see on the inside, do let me know ya! :) I will also take a better photo of this card when it is finally completed inside out! hehehe!

Blossoms everywhere....

CNY011

More stripe designs hehehehe......funny how I don't get bored doing it. LOL! This is another order I got from my regular customer. And as usual, I was given the chance to do whatever design I like. :) This design is a combination of that small design and the big design I did...hehehe.....except I didn't put any leaves on the flowers for this one. Because it will probably look too crowded.

I do like the pop up though.....because this time I popped up the wordings too! Not just the flowers with the vase, but yes, the wordings too. So that's a little different coming from me this time. It's all simple...nothing complicated. I just didn't have enough time to do something complicated because of the work load I'm having to deal with this month. It's just crazy lately over here hehehe......Well I hope you guys love this design as much as I do. I think it looks cheerful.....lots and lots of colors there. :)

Pop up cake + boxed gifts

HB055

A new creation from me today hehehehe......I made this one for one of my regular customer. She said I can design it anyway I want! ehehehe....best kan?? Love it when a customer gives me the freedom to do whatever I want.ehehehehe! :)

Well....since it's a birthday card, I thought of doing a birthday cake. Also this time around, I wanted to add some gifts beside the cake. This is a simple type of pop up. Where I only have to do the gifts and cake separately....then paste them on the square pop up.

I just love the brown metallic paper I used for this card.....it just makes the card looks expensive ekekekeke! I also love the technique I used for this design.....which is the same technique I used for making my beaded book. What I did was punch out the design on one paper and layer it with another paper below it. I love doing that with my bookmarks hehehe.....so I thought why not try it with my handmade cards and see what happens. You have to click on the photos to have a better picture of what I'm talking about. :) I also love the color combination for this design. Cheerful on the inside..... :)

Blog Giveaway --> February 2010!

OK MY LOVELY READERS!!! The time has come for the second blog giveaway of the year.....wooooohooooooo!!! :D I'm so excited! This time around, I'm giving away prizes for two lucky winners. I gave it a lot of thought and decided, why not I give prizes according to the number of the month of the year. For example, for January (First month) --> 1 winner, for February (Second month) ---> 2 winners, for March (3rd month) ---> 3 winners....and so on and so forth.....how's that???? So as we go along, there will be more winners from each month. Cool huh?! hehehehe! That way....more people will be getting prizes here in months to come. :)

*Click on the photo to get a better view of the prizes! *

I am going to give away to 2 lucky winners ----- > 2 Handmade greeting cards (From my Valentines Day and Chinese New Year card collection) and some embellishments.

Here are the rules of this giveaway:

You can earn 1 or 2 entries by following the simple steps below....

To earn 1 entry:

1. You must "FOLLOW" this blog / "BE A FOLLOWER" and leave a comment on this post. You can comment anything you wish regards to my card blog. Be sure to also write your name and your valid email address at your comment.

To earn 2 entries:

1.You must "FOLLOW" this blog / "BE A FOLLOWER" and leave a comment on this post. You can comment anything you wish regards to my card blog. Be sure to also write your name and your valid email address at your comment. Then you must blog about this giveaway in your own blog and link my blog to yours.

*If you find yourself unable to sign in as a follower due to problems with the internet connection or for whatever reasons.....then no worries, write a comment on this post anyways, and you will be given 1 entry to participate in this blog giveaway. :)

Best of luck to all participants! This giveaway ends on the 9th of February 2010 at 11.59pm. A winner will be chosen by a lucky draw. The name of the winner will be announced on the 10th of February 2010. Thank you!!! :)))))

p.s. I'm hoping I can give more cards this time around.....but only if I can actually make them in time before the giveaway ends on the 9th! LOL! If I can....I'll update about it! ;) Thank you all!

XOXO
Lin

Ribbon inspired.....

CNY010b

CNY010a

At last....I get to post these two Chinese New Year cards tonight......I had problems doing so this morning. My PC is acting up again!! Urrrrgggghhh!! I hate it when that happens. But what can I do, I just have to be patient and wait till the time is right for me to get me a new one. In the mean time, I am grateful for this PC, for it has helped me a lot with my small online business :)

Ok, now......lets talk about the CNY cards. :) I made two.....one with stripes and the other without. Somehow I kinda like the one without. Why? Because for me it's already pretty without the stripes. I thought to myself, the cherry blossoms ribbon itself is enough. I bought the ribbon a few weeks ago, just so that I can use it for this occasion. It has cherry blossom flowers on it. Lovely! Quite big too! I bought a few types including a couple for Valentines Day. I hope I can show you the Valentines Day cards soon. If all is good with this PC, hopefully I can do that. LOL!

I have not decided on the pop up yet for these cards. I have no idea what to do. Perhaps a seven pop up flower would be suitable too. Like the one I did last year. It does match with the designs of these cards. Well.....what do you guys think? :)

Cherry blossoms...

CNY009

Thought of something really really simple for this year's Chinese New Year card last night. But I also thought of something complicated heheheh. The complicated ones I will post later on. For now, lets talk about this easy one. :) This easy one was made using a small note size card. About 10.4cm x 14.7cm in size. I used to love making cards using cards this size but nowadays when I look at it I realize how small the card is hehehe! Maybe because I've been so used to designing cards that are bigger in size lately.

I bought this new flower craft punch last year. I think it's a Unicorn brand craft punch. Anyways, it's super fun to use as it's really sharp. I love the cherry blossom pattern a lot. It's really pretty. All I did was just scatter the flowers on the cards, nothing challenging about it at all. Added some leaves next to the flowers and walla!! It's done! hehehe! I only added some glitter glue to add that special touch to it. I also made a simple pop up inside the card. It's a simple pop up that I cut so that I could weave the stalks of cherry blossoms in between it. :)

Something old + something new....

HB054

OK!!! This design is not new....it's the same old design like HB014. But the difference is that it's bigger in size. This one is half the size of an A4 paper and the old one is 13cm x 18cm. HB014 has a different pop up inside it....it's a pop up lip and this one is a pop up cake. This is a request from my customer. She wanted me to combine both designs in one card. :)

The old design was made using a different type of paper and the color was slightly different too, it was cream in color. But since that paper is now out of stock, I replaced it with this beige color paper. I think the beige color suits the design too don't you think?? :)

As for the pop up cake.....it's the same design as the pop up cake in HB048 except that she requested that I change the color of the cake to match the design of the card. :)

Arsenal Fan!!

HB053

Just finished designing and making this card today! Yay! I did it finally! Phew! I was really worried with this one because this design is actually a combination of so many different design I made in the past all mixed into one. My customer was interested in so many of my card designs and she couldn't really fix which one she loves best hehehe. This card is for her hubby and her hubby is a big Arsenal fan! So I had to figure out how to do a combination of heart shapes, football, pop up cake, big red lips, just to name a few of the subjects she wanted in the card...hehehe...

I love this new black paper I am using for this design. It's metallic black....looks shiny when it hits the light...love it! So it doesn't really look pitch black....because it has some silver touch to it. :) I always have problems deciding what color I should use....but since my customer wanted the card to be black, that's when I knew what color to combine with black. As usual black always looks good with white, red, silver and gold.....and it seems to mix well for this design. I had to add a little blue here and there because of the Arsenal logo. :)

I made a really really big pop up cake this time......it's so big that it almost fills up the top of the card. It's really tall right??? A bit too tall I suppose. Should have made it a little shorter but I wanted it to have a big impact in the card! hehehe! I love the small football prints I did too....it's SO CUTE! Never printed it as small as that before. It would be difficult to draw it from scratch so I thought why not just print it! Easier that way....and then cut and paste them on the card, and arrange them as part of the design. The most crucial part to do in this design, for me would be the part where I had to write the wordings on the front of the card. The wordings "Happy Birthday Abang Sayang"....that was so nerve wrecking because, if I suddenly start shaking, my hands, it would spoil everything!!! Yikes! So I had to make sure I had a steady hand before writing it down! hahaha! Thank God it went well and it looked good! Phew!!! :)

Pop up hubby and wife.... ;)

HB052

Gosh! I'm not sure how many times I shot photos of this card design. Perhaps more than 50 times just to get the right color of the card. Phew! Luckily nowadays we have digital camera....so grateful for the invention of that! hahaha!

OK! Now back to the design....my customer was interested in the V011 design but wanted a different pop up for the card. She wanted a pop up couple (of her and her hubby). I've never done a pop up couple before. Pretty challenging I'm telling ya!! Yup! I'm OK when it comes to drawing figures of ladies but when it comes to men, I'm just not that good at it. It always looks weird hahaha. I asked her to send me a copy of their photo together so that I have an idea of how she and her hubby really looks like in real life. I wouldn't want to make them look like someone else hehehe. So I tried my best to draw the couple and make it look as similar to them as possible. Inspired by the V011 card, I made the front design for this birthday card to have some similarities to the V011 but looks more organized rather than having the heart shapes scattered all over the card without any borders. :)

Her hubby loves photography very much.....so she requested that I put a photo of a DSLR anywhere inside the card or outside it. So I thought why not have him hold the DSLR himself....that would be cool I thought to myself. So, I printed the photo of the DSLR as small as I could and made a strap for it too. So it looks like it's dangling from his neck and he's ready to take photos! hehehe! I love that part! :))))

Bridal theme....

W009e

W009d

W009c

W009b

W009a

I received an order to design 5 congratulations cards from a fellow blogger who had recently done a blog award at her wedding theme blog. It's a very interesting blog that is dedicated to future brides. They provide all the information a bride would need to know and prepare them with all the great tips too on how to plan for that perfect wedding. All the information that a bride could ever need at just a click away :). Cool huh?? :) You can view it HERE.

She requested the cards to have a simple design with a bridal theme since the blog awards are for wedding theme bloggers. As I have designed cards for her before and I know that she loves pastel colors, so that's why I designed all the cards using soft pastel colors. Soft and sweet! :) The wedding dress, I designed using a combination of doily paper and soft pastel colored paper which I then decorated with sequin and ribbon as the belt. Then I added the silver dots to make it look like it has bling bling on it ehehehe.....

I used a lot of silver ribbons on the designs because that silver ribbons never fail to make it look fancy :). It just adds that special touch to it without having to do much decoration to the card. As you can see, it's a very simple design. Clean and simple and sweet. :)

Heartfelt Thanks!

TY002

:)))) I am currently in love with this card! hehehehe! Why? It's the colors.....it's just because of the colors, mainly.....and maybe because of the laces and bows of ribbons idea. I made this card for my Mom's friend. She wanted a thank you card.

She didn't request for a pop up but my Mom wanted me to make one anyways because she loves pop ups hehehe......at first I couldn't decide on what kind of pop up to make....then after some serious thought, I came up with this one. It's something I've never done before....and have never seen anyone doing so. What I did was, I weaved the stems of the flowers to the pop up. It's so much fun doing this way rather than gluing them the usual way behind the pop up vase of basket. This way, I get to arrange the flowers easily and it sort of forms a basket like pattern on the pop up. Then I colored it a bit on the edges with colored pencil. Loving this technique and hopefully can use it for other pop ups in future. :)

Yellow card with orange laces...

HB051

I rarely make cards using yellow paper. I have done some before but I rarely use them in my designs......perhaps because it's not the kind of color that most customers would like to request for their custom made cards. But since I have lots of the paper available, I started playing with that particular idea I had with the previous birthday card I made. Yup, the one where I combined the laces and bows of ribbons.

I have not even made the envelope yet.....nor have I decorated anything inside it......no pop ups or anything.......I'm still searching for ideas for this one. Just wanted to share with everyone what I made. I'll be updating this card again once I've completed the design. :))))

Lady in pant suit ;)

HB050

Lady in blue pant suit :) How I wish I have a figure like that hahahaha...... LOL! :D. I kinda like that pant suit a lot, but wonder where I would where it to if I had one. Being at home most of the time and not having to go to functions that actually would give me the chance to wear something like that. Oh well! ;) Well, I made the dress from scratch....piece by piece, starting with the jacket, then the pants and lastly the hijab/skarf that looks like "tudung ekin" ehehehe!

I like to experiment when it comes to making cards.....and most of the time I try to make them look different from the ones I've done before. Sometimes I only do minor changes like the one I did with this pop up. Only minor changes like only putting the candles at the top of the cake instead of putting them on all the layers like I did before, just to see how it would look like. I think perhaps I should have done it on all the layers but, I just simply wanted to see how it turned out. I did patterns on the cake with pen and also silver glitter glue. That was different...never done that before.

Another thing that I like is the ribbon and laces that I combined at the front of the card. The black lace is actually a small type of lace which I glued on the card side by side each other only to be separated by a really small silver ribbon in between them. Then I made 3 bows using a dark blue ribbon that has silver linings on the edges. I like this idea......would probably do more like this in future. :)

Fishing for love ehehe.....

V017

Fishing for love!! Yup!! The title is as funny as the card design hahahaha...... :D I simply had to post this card here today. It's been in my collection for the past few months already but never really had the chance to join in with the rest of the collection here because it was not quite completed. Even now it's not because I haven't done the envelope yet. But if there was one it would be red in color, that's why I put the card on top of a red colored paper....hehehe.

The card design was inspired by the fishes in the aquarium that my Mom has here at our home. She loves to care for them.....they are like her babies. Even I, have been given the responsibility to care for them now, LOL! Of course there aren't any of those that are blue and red in color hehehe.....the colors of the two lovey dovey fishes on the card are kinda symbolic. Red to represent a lady and blue to represent a man. I just made the design spontaneously without thinking much about the layout....then I realized I have no idea where to put the wordings. though....it just didn't seem right to put it anywhere. So that's why I left it as it is. No wordings at all. Let the design speak for itself. LOL!

I did a simple pop up inside.....lots and lots of love too.....all spreading upwards...floating or flying away.....hehehe. And I wrote on the two fish the words "LOVE" and "YOU", right beside the big red heart in the center, using glitter glue. Love using those glitter glue on my cards lately. It just adds that extra special touch to the card without much effort. :) This card is actually suitable to be given during Valentines Day or any other day that you wish to convey to your loved ones your love for them. A guy can give it to a girl and visa versa. So it's not just focused on a particular gender, so to speak. hehehe... It's a spontaneous design from a not so spontaneous person who is trying her level best to be spontaneous this year...hahahaha.....anyways, enjoy!!!! ;)

Pop up remote control car

HB049

Green! Apple green to be exact! Yup! I recently bought a rim of that apple green paper. It was the last stock in the shop it seems but I'm glad I got it because I just love the texture of the paper and the color too. Although I'm not really sure if an 8 year old boy would love that color though hehehe.....it was just something I wanted to do and in the end I kept wondering if it is actually suitable. I tried to balance the colors up inside with the colorful balloons to make it look a little cheerful for a birthday card. Gosh....I seriously need to do more research on cards for children ehehehe!! LOL!

My customer wanted a remote control car to pop up inside. I was thinking to myself...."Oh God....how on earth do I do that???". I spent so much of my time thinking and researching about it....a lot of time wasted. This is why I don't like to do custom made orders.....ONE..., because I really am SO SLOW when it comes to thinking of new ideas, TWO..., because even if I had one, I take such a long time to figure out how to do it! hahaha!! I really don't like to keep my customers waiting and waiting and waiting for the ideas to materialize you know.....so that's WHY. Unless my customers are so understanding and are willing to wait a long time for their card to be done.

And alas....this was what I came up with. I thought to myself, why not just print the photo of the remote control car and it's remote, then do a simple pop up. And then add some balloons to cheer things up a little inside. And so I did! :))) Yes, I know, I know....indeed I seriously need to do more research hahahaha...

And the winner is......................

I noted down all the participants names and folded the paper up and toss them in the box......then, the moment came for me to pick the lucky winner for my first ever blog giveaway....hehehe. Arrrgghhh so nervous!!!! I couldn't do it myself so I asked my Mom to pick the paper from the box for me...hehehehe.....then I opened up the pink folded paper and the name was revealed before my eyes.....and the winner isssssssssssssssssssssssss.........!!! Tadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

***NOR HAZIRA***

So Nor Hazira, congratulations!!!! I will be contacting you soon to get your contact details so that I can post the gifts to you. :))) As shown at the photos above, those are the handmade cards and embellishments that you will be receiving. 5 types of handmade cards of different sizes, colorful buttons, a variety of colorful sequins, a variety of ribbons, colorful flowers and leaves that I punched out using the different craft punches in my collection. Hope you like them!! :))))

So that's the end of my blog giveaway for this month. Do participate again for the next one coming on the 1st of February 2010!! I hope to be able to have more goodies to giveaway for participants the next time around. Thanks again everyone!!!

Last day of Blog Giveaway No 1

Gosh! Time sure flies fast!! It's the last day of the blog giveaway today! Yikes! It ends at 12.00am tonight....yup! At midnight tonight!! So there is still time to participate OK??!! hehehe!!!

I've been thinking....since there isn't so many people participating in my first blog giveaway, I'll bend some rules. Looks like a few people are experiencing problems viewing my blog and signing up as a Follower here. I can understand your problem.....it happens sometimes when the internet connection is slow or due to other irritating reasons hahahaha! ;) But no worries, I'm a pretty "sporting" person ehehehe.....so, I'm giving all those who have left comments on my blog giveaway post a chance to participate in it even though you did not sign up as a follower. How's that???!!! Hope that would put a big smile on your face today! hehehe!! So no worries OK?? Just leave a comment on the blog giveaway post and let me know which is your favorite handmade card from this blog and you will get 1 entry for the lucky draw.

All the best to all who joined in my first blog giveaway! Thank you for your support and lovely wishes too!!!

XOXO,
Lin...

Pop up flower bouquet...

TY001

A new pop up! Tried to do this new pop up design which is a flower bouquet. A pop up bouquet is not that hard to make but the hard part for me would be to arrange the flowers. I really had problems doing that. And I know that the next time I do this, it won't look exactly the same. It will have a slight difference, that's for sure. :)

The design on the outside of the card is similar to the birthday card (HB031) that I did before except that I changed the colors. I love pink and apple green combo. It's just sweet! :)

Pop up birthday cake and more!

HB048

Gosh! This is one of my favorite birthday card design now. :) The colors you see in these photos sure doesn't do justice to the real colors of the card. I'm having problems getting natural lighting here at my house. To get that perfect spot where I can shoot my artwork with ease is kinda challenging for me now. Oh well, I hope to get that problem fixed soon enough :).

OK, lets talk about the card.....ok, this card was actually inspired by one of my older designs. The idea came from the V007 Valentine's day card....and my customer was interested in that card in the beginning but he wanted it to have lots of purple shades and more cupcakes on it. Therefore I had to redesign it using a bigger card. This one is half of the A4 size paper and I even added a pop up birthday cake inside it as requested. The red balloons were a last minute decision which my customer wanted me to add in. Those balloons really filled up the empty spaces inside the card, which therefore does not leave him much space left to write.

My favorite thing about the card itself would be the purple cupcakes! I guess it's because this is the first time I made cupcakes using foam and I think they are super cute! hehehe!! ;))))) It's so easy to work with foam although I have to be careful when cutting it so that I don't waste any of it. This design sure does took a lot of time and energy but I'm satisfied with the results. Now I am a lot more confident making the pop up birthday cake as I've had to do them a few times already. But hopefully I get to do more different types of pop up birthday cakes this year so that there are more varieties for my customer to choose from. :)))

Blog Giveaway No 1

It's 2010 already! Yay! I have a lot of things stored up for my card blog this new year. New ideas to try out and there will be a few blog giveaways to be held here every now and then throughout this year. I want to do this hopefully every month so that more people stand a chance to win some handmade cards from my blog. For all the support you guys have given me all these years, the least I can do is to give back what I've received. :))))

BLOG GIVEAWAY NO 1

OK! So, for the first blog giveaway.....jeng jeng jeng!!!! :D

I am going to give away to 1 lucky winner ----- > 5 Handmade cards and some embellishments.

So it could be a birthday card, gift cards, thank you cards or any type of card that I choose plus some embellishments for card making. I've been going through some ideas of which card designs I'll be giving away and I assure you, you won't be disappointed! :)

Here are the rules of this giveaway:

You can earn 1 or 2 entries by following the simple steps below....

To earn 1 entry:
1. You must "FOLLOW" this blog / "BE A FOLLOWER" and leave a comment on this post about which card design from my blog that you love the most and write down the card code. Be sure to also write your name and your valid email address at your comment.

To earn 2 entries:
1.You must "FOLLOW" this blog / "BE A FOLLOWER" and leave a comment on this post about which card design from my blog that you love the most and write down the card code. Be sure to also write your name and your valid email address at your comment. Then you must blog about this giveaway in your own blog and link my blog to yours.

*Only those who follow the rules of this giveaway will be eligible to enter this giveaway. Those who fail to do so will be automatically DISQUALIFIED!

Best of luck to all participants! This giveaway ends on the 9th of January 2010 at midnight 12.00am. A winner will be chosen by a lucky draw. The name of the winner will be announced on the 10th of January 2010. Thank you!!! :)))))

XOXO
Lin

End of 2009

Gosh.....2009 is coming to an end today. This year has been a good year for my handmade card business. Alhamdulillah a lot has improved when it comes to my card design. I have been working really hard this year to improve my card making skills and also when it comes to services for my customers. I know I have made mistakes before. I certainly have learn to not repeat the same mistakes again and do my very best to entertain my customer's requests.

I really appreciate all the support and encouragement from all of you who have been there for me in my good times and bad times. Please do continue supporting my work here. I welcome all comments, suggestions and critics from everyone. These will help me continue to improve in future.

Thank you again to all my loyal customers, to all my readers and to all who have visited Lin Handmade Greetings Card this year. May God bless you all with all the good things in life!

XOXO,
Lin

Pop up gift box and balloons!

HB047

This is the first time ever I made two different pop ups combined in one card! hehe! The actual plan was to do a pop up school boy, but in the end I decided to put the school boy on the outside where the wordings are. Gosh, it was so hard to do that! The school boy I mean.....I'm so not good at doing figurines. I tried my best and that's how it turned out in the end. :) I just didn't quite know how else to decorate the card with the boy on it....so I did what I usually do, which is doing that stripe pattern again! LOL! The stripe pattern is now kinda like a trademark for my cards. I just love doing it. My Mom on the other hand, is not loving it as much because I do it too many times it seems on my card designs. Oh well.....she's one of my critics now hahaha.....I don't always listen to her though LOL!!

The pop ups are a gift box and a few balloons coming out of the gift box.....errrmmm, well, it was meant to look like it came out of the box hehehe.....hope I achieved that somehow. LOL! I guess the pop ups are the part of the card that I love the most....especially the balloons. I don't know why I get so happy looking at them. Funny huh? I didn't do much decoration on the balloons except for just lining them with glitter glue. I really hope the boy loves it too! ;)

Cute thank you card...

SGC010

I made this thank you gift card for my aunt......she ordered a few of them to give away to her friends. I made a quick and simple card using white embossed paper. I love this paper because of the embossed design on it. :) No need to decorate too much on the card because the emboss is already considered as decoration.....hehehe!

Pop up hearts + flowers

HB046

I recently got me some new stock of paper, Lilac in color....so I decided to try out a new color combo. I think I've tried purple with moss green before but never mixed it with lilac. So I thought I would give it a shot and see how it turned out. I'm kinda unhappy with the photos here......the color does not really turn out as I want it to be because of the lack of natural light. I shot this in the evening, so obviously there wasn't enough light to see the true colors of the paper. Nonetheless, I gave it my best to capture the colors as close as I can get it.

I'm not really fully satisfied with this design and will probably redo it??? Urrrmmm, I donno, but for the time being, this is how it looks like hehehe.....and I love the new pop up I did. It's a V-Fold but I made a pattern out of it as you can see. Then I glued on it some colorful heart shapes, leaves and flowers. I just did it without thinking that much. Just kept on adding it bit by bit till its all filled up. :)

You Rock!!!

HB045

This card was made for an old friend of mine. His birthday was in November......I wished him on his birthday and then he requested a handmade birthday card from me.....YUP!!!...that was what happened and that's how this design came about hahaha :D LOL!!. This is the second request I got to make birthday cards from close friends. I made one already earlier and this is the second one I made. But I don't mind making them for people who knows how to appreciate art. :)

At first I didn't know what kind of theme I was gonna do or what kind of design I would come up with that would be suitable for him. Then I thought since he was so much into rock music, it would be cool to do a rock theme card for him. I've seen a lot of handmade cards around using the wordings such as "You Rock" on them and electric guitars.....I've been thinking of doing an electric guitar for quite awhile now but never really put my mind to actually doing it till now. So, I tried to find an electric guitar pattern online and traced it on the red and white foam. It was really fun playing with these foams.....and I kinda like using them for my handmade cards these days.

I think the best part about the guitar would be the strings! I sew four strings of silver thread on the foam to make it look like real wire strings hehehe!! That was fun! :) I also did a V-fold pop up on the inside of the card but with a different twist this time because I drew on it a few music notes and stars of different shapes and then cut them out using a craft knife. This type of design can only be done using a craft knife....you can't really achieve something like that using craft punches alone. I enjoyed doing it especially when it's all cut out and you can see through it. :) I decorated it with birthday wordings at the top.

I really hope he likes it as much as I do! He's a great artist and I really admire his artwork. It's nerve wrecking to give someone with such great talent, your own piece of artwork. I wonder what he will say about this birthday card hahaha.....I hope he won't criticize too much! LOL! :)

Pop up Kaabah

H001

I receive a request to do a Haji theme card from a customer who wishes to give this card to her parents when they arrive home from performing their haj next week. I have never done this type of card before so it's a new thing for me to learn.

The first thing that came to my mind was to make a pop up Kaabah for this design. I was thinking of how to go about it and then I searched for pop ups that was in the shape of a box. I went to Extreme Cards and Papercrafting blog to see if there were any samples of such pop ups and luckily there was one! Yay! A closed box pop up! But the box was a bit short and not the kind that I needed to make the Kaabah. So I had to change the size so that it will look a bit similar to it. It was really tough!! I had to do it a few times till I really got it right. Do check out the blog to see the tutorial for a pop up closed up box :).

Pop up computer!

HB044

A pop up computer! Yay! I did it! I couldn't find a sample anywhere on how to make a pop up computer....if anybody out there knows where I can find one, do tell! I had to make this one from scratch....and boy was it hard to do! Arrrggghhh! LOL :)

My customer requested for the card to be in a red or orange color but I decided to combine the two colors instead. The combination of the two colors looks bright and outstanding. Mixed with white and silver too....to add some contrast.

As you can see....I love playing with stripe patterns. Lining strips of papers of different colors with ribbons and gluing them piece by piece, creating a design on the card. It does take time to do it but I love how it turns out in the end.

I didn't decorate much on the pop up computer inside the card....basically I didn't want it to look too overly decorated and it might spoil the whole look of the pop up computer itself.....at the moment that's the idea that I had in mind. Perhaps maybe in future I will come up with something new.....not sure what it will be like though, but hopefully a much better design. :)

Bigger version of V011

V011 (Half A4 size)

This particular design is originally only 10.4cm x 14.7cm in size, but I had to make it on a bigger card as requested by my customer. Basically because of the wordings involved.....I was afraid that the wordings might not be able to fit in clearly and nicely if done on a smaller card.

I did make some changes here and there particularly at the pop up heart inside the card. I added purple hearts which was not available on the original design. The pop up heart itself is done differently as you can compare.....this particular one I did separately from the card and pasted on it. The original design I cut out the heart shape from the soft pink insert paper inside the card thus leaving a big hole behind the pop up heart that can make you clearly see the purple card behind it. So for this new card, I decided it's better to do it separately to make it look more neat. :)

New colour for HB031

HB031a

OK! Been getting a lot of orders for this design....so much so that I ran out of the soft yellowish paper for this card!! hehehe!! So I had to find a similar color of paper that would match the original color of the old design. Finally I found a color that looks a little creamy and it does match with the gold, peach and pink paper. So I guess from now onwards if anybody wants to purchase this HB031 design, this is what it will look like from now on.....I also made the stripe design at the bottom of the card with small ribbons combined with the color paper strips......and I also added soft pink 7 pop up flowers inside it. But if you don't like the pop up flowers, it can be done without them.....just let me know and I will not add them in it. :)

I made this card for my Mom's friend who celebrated her 77th birthday......she was super excited about it.....and even more so when she received a bouquet of flowers that matches the color of the flowers on the card. hehehe! What a coincidence it was that the two match each other.....it was not planned at all......I'm just happy that she loved it.....it's all that matters :)

Pop up house! ;)

HB043

This is one of pop up projects that I have wanted to do since I moved back to Alor Setar. I saw a video of how to make a pop up house on Youtube a few months back. Ever since then I've been thinking of doing it, and when my regular customer ordered a birthday card for her mother with a theme that's related to home sweet home....I took the opportunity to make this pop up house for her. Have a look at the video of how to make the cottage house HERE

The ideas for the design just came during the process of making the card itself.....I just added them bit by bit as I go along. My customer already had in mind what she wanted for the design of the card....for example, her mother loves to garden and loves her chickens too. So I thought why not make a simple garden and add some chickens, butterflies, birds and some blue clouds to make it look cheerful. :) As for the design on the inside, I just made the pop up cottage house and added a pathway with bushes and flowers along it :). Most of the shapes I pasted on the card are done by hand using plain scissors except for the flowers, butterflies and one of the leaf that I used craft punches. The rest like the clouds, birds, the long leaves, bushes are done by cutting them up using plain scissors. The most interesting part of the pop up house for me would be the roof! Why? Because I pasted layers and layers of scallop patterned paper on it to make it look like a roof for the house. I really love that part. :)

It's funny how many months ago I thought that this pop up house was so hard to do. Now that I have tried making it I realise that it's not that hard after all. You just need to follow the pattern correctly and things will fall into place. :)

Love is in the air! ;)

VO16

Love is in the air people!!! Yup! It sure is! ;) I love this card, even though it looks so simple. But in reality it's not as simple to make as it looks. There is something about it that's kinda complicated to do. Can you guess what it is? hehehe! Well, it's those teeny tiny heart shapes that I had to arrange one by one and make it look like they are flying away from the pink foam heart shape balloons. That was really time consuming, especially since the size was so small....imagine how difficult it was to glue it on the card :). Yes indeed, it was a tough job! But someone had to do it! LOL! :D

This card is also a request from a regular customer of mine. She did gave me a lot of time to finish this and I appreciate it very much as I don't have a lot of time to do custom made orders these days. Another thing that is special about this card is the "bling bling" that was added to the pink foam heart shapes to give it that special touch. It was her idea to add them on the card. I just had to figure out how to do that hehehe....I didn't have much of bling bling in stock, those you see on the card was all I had available with me. LOL! I need to get more soon, if I can find it here in Alor Setar. Hopefully they are available here.

The card is half the size of an A4 paper and comes with a matching soft pink envelope that I adore because of the heart shape and cloud design at the back of the envelope. It think it's cute! hehehe! LOL! I wish I could show you guys the design I did on the inside of the card but I can't because there is a private message for the receiver from my customer inside it. So unfortunately I can't share that to the world....huhuhu...sorry guys! :( Anyways, what I can tell you is that there are wordings inside it that says, "Love is in the air"... :)

Lawyer's Robe.....

LAWYER THEME CARD

Gosh....this was an interesting project :) I've never done a lawyer's robe before and was requested to make one. As most of you know....I don't do custom made designs anymore, I try not to take them anymore due to the time constraint. But since I had some time in my hands recently I was able to take this order. Times like this I wish I have a much more interesting variety of materials to use to make miniature clothes....so since I don't have any, I had to resort to using paper instead. It's a simple design.....clean cut and smart. That's the objective. I hope I managed to achieve that look. :)

Pop up Christmas tree!

CD004

As usual when it comes to making pop up cards, I am always excited! hehehe! This is another pop up design that I have been thinking of doing for quite sometime now. I finally did it in the end. There were a few pop up Christmas tree designs to choose from but I picked to do this one first, mainly because the pop up Christmas tree will match the craft punch Christmas tree design on the card. The pop up Christmas tree was a tough one to make mainly because I had to arrange one by one those tiny craft punch fern leaf on it....with three shades of green color too. I wish I could have glued on more of it to hide the white background but I got tired! LOL! :D

This is the first time I'm using this craft punch as well. I was thinking really hard of how to arrange the small Christmas trees on the card and finally this is what I came up with. It's really simple.....and I place the white flower sequin in between them to symbolize snowflakes heheheh!

Another thing that I would like to mention here is the small white foam squares I arranged one by one around the wordings on the card. I had fun doing that! LOL! It's suppose to symbolize snow but it looks like marshmallow to me! hahaha! Oh well! I still love that bit of design though! :).

Best wishes....

BW001

I am pretty excited about this new design :) I was experimenting with another one of my new flower and leaf craft punch again. Gosh....I think I've bought quite a lot of craft punches this year hehehe.....oh well! The reason why I did that was because I noticed that if I don't buy them when those particular designs are available, the next time I want to buy them at the craft shop, they're sold out!! So better get them while they are still available in stock! hehehe....

What I love about the design this time is the medium sized black and red ribbon. It has a beautiful design on it. Quite expensive though......huhuhuhu.....but I bought it anyways, couldn't help myself!! hahaha! I try to play with the colors that are available on the ribbon and find papers that match it. The stripe design below the ribbon are actually strips of black and red paper that I glued on to the card piece by piece. It was very tricky and I needed to make sure that it is glued on it properly and looks neat and straight.

The wordings "Best Wishes" was actually made using a rubber stamp that I bought a long time ago.....I never used it before in my card designs....but now that I have the ink pads, I can try it. Fun! :)

The pop up inside the card is a simple pop up......a box pop up I made which I later pasted with a pot of flower arrangement that I made using the same flower and leaf craft punch. I layered the three colored paper flowers together and added the leaves in between....it was kinda tricky to make the flower arrangement....but it worked out in the end. Phew! :)

Pop up birthday cake!

HB042

OK! Here's the bright orange, dark pink and white card I was telling about! hehehe! I must say I love making this design :) You know why? Because I finally get to experiment with my new clear stamps! Yay! I receive them as gifts from a dear friend of mine. She's so sweet! I had loads of fun stamping the designs on paper. The best thing about clear stamps is that you can adjust the patterns that you wish to stamp on paper, meaning that you can see through the stamp itself right on the paper. It's just so much fun! Right now I wish I have more different color ink pads to match my designs. I will get some when I go to KL hehehe....coz I can't seem to find any here in Alor Setar.

I also added a pop up birthday cake inside the card. I've never done this before and it was fun! It's not that hard to do after all.....the only thing that I wish I had done more is to decorate the cake hehehe......I made it quite simple with lots and lots of candles. Yup there are quite a number of candles there....on each one of them. :)

Bright colors...

SGC009

Another one of my new small cute little gift cards......I adore this color combination a lot....in fact I made another card which is a birthday card with these color combination too.....bright orange, dark pink and white. Love it! :)

Another sweet gift card....

SGC008

Ok....this is another small gift card design I made using my new flower and leaf craft punch......the flowers are layered one on top of the other. I enjoy doing that and matching the colors. I'm sorry the color of the card here is slightly off because of the lighting problem. I still need to find a better place in my house where I can take photos with better lighting area to get the best effect. I cut the two bottom corners of the card using patterned scissors to make the design look more interesting. :)

Cute little daisy....

SGC007b

SGC007a

Alhamdulillah.....the internet connection is working again :). So today I am able to post some gift cards that I made for my aunt's friend. She loves to order them in quite a large quantity....and place money in them to give away as a gift to the newlyweds. It's a simple design.....scattered paper daisy flowers that I made using a small craft punch. I wanted to make more of this design with different color papers but I only have two organza ribbons of white and gold color. She loves pastel color cards.....so I will be posting two more designs of gift cards that I made for her after this.... :)

Internet connection problem! Urrrghhh!

Hello everybody! Here I am today at the internet cafe, with great regret, I have to make this announcement regarding my online store. I am experiencing yet another problem! Urrrgggghhh! Yes people....another sickening problem regarding this internet thingy hehehe......well, I am not sure why, but for the past few days I have been experiencing problems connecting to the internet. Not sure what is wrong with the Streamyx broadband huhuhuhu..... :(. And because of that I have not been online as much as I can to entertain your emails and inquiries regarding my handmade card orders. But every now and then I will go check my emails at the internet cafe and reply your inquiries as soon as I possibly can.

Also.....I will be away for the next 4 days......so I won't be online at all starting tomorrow 14/10 till Saturday 17/10. I really really hope by next week all my problems concerning this matter will be over and so that I can resume with work smoothly. I really am trying my best to be there for everyone.

So, if anyone out there is interested to purchase my handmade cards, please be patient....I will be available again for work, next week on 18/10....... :)

Thank you again for your support towards my online store....I really appreciate it. Truly sorry for any inconvenience!!!

Blue heart button and sequin card.....the finale...

V015b (with pop up hearts)

V015a (with pop up hearts)

Finally! It's done! But.....aaaahhhh....one thing I forgot to do is the envelope!! But it's ok.....that one I can do later hehehe......I'm excited to upload these photos first....the envelopes can wait hehehe.....

At first I was contented to leave the heart shape buttons and sequins card as it is without any laces or extra embellishments added to it.....then when my Mom saw it, she told me that it would look a lot better with some borders around the heart.....huh??? BORDERS????? HOW???? Well, she couldn't answer.....but all she said that something is missing to this design and I should figure it out myself! LOL! So here is what I came up with.....and she was pretty happy about it, especially with the one with the laces at the top and bottom of the card. I also added the pop up heart shapes inside the card. I had a hard time figuring out what color would match.....I didn't have a lot of colored paper that would be suitable.....so I just used what was available. :) Loving it so far! hehehe!

Blue heart buttons and sequins......

V015

I have a plan for this new card design....I wanted to give this to a very dear friend of mine who lives far far away. She loves the color blue and purple too. And heart shapes are her favorite motif! hehehehe! I haven't done any wordings or pop up inside it yet. It's a bit bigger than the other buttons and sequins card as it is half the size of an A4. I'm planning on doing something to it tomorrow if possible. I'm still working on this card but am just so excited to show everyone this new design. I'll take more photos of it once it's all done with the envelope and view on the inside of the card as well.

I was thinking of adding something to the front of the card to make it a little different from the previous design. I hope it will be suitable and not spoil the whole design. Well, I guess we will just have to wait and see how it turns out in the end. Till then!

Oh by the way.....if anyone is interested to purchase this card with this simple design without any pop up or wordings, do let me know!!! ;) TQ!!!

A moo moo bufday ;)

Example of wordings and tag inside the card

HB009 C (NOT AVAILABLE)

HB009 B (NOT AVAILABLE)

HB009 A (AVAILABLE)

Hehehe.....I got three moo moo birthday cards for sale.....one of it is already booked by my customer and the other two will be for anybody who is interested to purchase them! LOL! :) As you can see the picture of the cute little cows are different from one another, none of them are exactly the same if you look closely.

This is actually not a new design.....I've made this before some years ago....the material I used for the pattern is actually a print from a wrapping paper. Wrapping paper is a good material to use for card making. But you have to get the good quality ones so that it will last longer. I love using it especially for this type of layout. It works great this way! :)

The golden heart.....

V012a (NO WORDINGS)

This design is definitely not something new but there is something new that I added to it to make it look more complete. That new addition to the design is the gold glitter glue which I added a lot in all the teeny tiny spaces in between the buttons and sequins. Those tiny spaces can't be filled anymore with tiny sequins or beads, so I thought glitter glue is the best solution to for it so far. It's easy to apply and the end result is great as it makes the heart shape sparkle when it hits the light. Love it so much. :)

This card design was left empty or blank with no wordings on it or inside it.....but there is a pop up heart shape inside it with colors that match the card design. I haven't done this design for awhile now, so when I got an order for this again I realized how hard it is to do it.....it takes such a long time to finish the design.....especially the front design where I have to glue all the tiny sequins.... :D This design is suitable for Valentines Day or for any occasion whatsoever..... :)

Working again.....

HB041a

Phew! I was really relieved when my printer magically started to function again last few days ago. I was thinking of which computer shop I can go to repair it but fortunately for me it's ok now. I started to take orders again after the Eid and this was one of the cards that I had to make. I was so happy that I was able to print the wordings otherwise I would have to figure out a way to write it myself or stamp it......that would be difficult...printing is always easiest! hehehe.... This design is exactly the same as HB041 except that the wordings on this card is a little bigger because there is no name printed on it other than Happy Birthday.

But anyways, I have been thinking of doing some rubber stamping projects though....the designs will be out soon....still working on them hehehe....till then!!

Orders for Raya Cards closed!

Dear all.....I'm sorry but all orders for Raya cards is now closed. Thank you so much to all who have purchased my Raya Cards this year.....it means a lot to me!! Thanks again!!

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all Muslims around the world!!!

XOXO,
Lin

Orange and yellow ketupat ribbon card

HR014

I made a new arrangement using similar materials.....all I did was just arranged the two ketupat differently and adding more ribbons at the side of the card. So it looks more fancy. Well, at least I think it does hehehe.....lol! Am just playing with the same materials.....but different color combination hehehe :)

Mosque.....Soft baby blue and soft purple

HR013

A request I had recently for a raya card with purple and blue combination! As usual I would take a look at my paper collection and see what color paper would match one another. And this is what I came up with. I love the soft baby blue color as the base of the card, it just matched the soft purple ribbon really well. :)

Blue and brown ketupat ribbon card

HR012

Blue! My favorite color! Yay! I love this one.....and I made it especially for the guys hehe..... :) Since my printer is not working I wrote the wordings myself....all capital letters so that it can be read clearly. I already know who I'll be sending this one to! LOL! ;)

Pink and green ketupat ribbon card

HR011

The pink and soft green ketupat ribbon card! Yup! I had a hard time thinking of how to arrange the ketupat in other layouts....so I came up with this idea. I placed the printed wordings on top and the ketupat below it. Oh well! So much for an idea! hahaha! LOL! Honestly for me, I have been having a hard time making raya cards......ideas are just not coming out as they should be and problems with my PC and printer is making it worse. I have to improvise and make do with what is available at hand.

This card has no wordings on the inside as you can see....and I can't print it either!! The printer is not working. Yikes! Just when I need it the most, that's when it decides to stop functioning! Urrgghh! Oh well!!

I have been figuring out where is the best place to shoot the photos as well.....sometimes it looks nice but sometimes it doesn't. But I do my best to make it work. I hope you will be able to see the photos of the card well here. The colors may not be that clear but at least you have an idea of how it looks like hehehe........hope you guys like it!

Green & yellow ketupat ribbon cards

HR010a

HR010

Yes! I finally did this! A ketupat ribbon card! I've wanted to do this technique for quite sometime now. I had this idea in my head of making a "ketupat" using ribbons but was trying to find an easy way of doing it. Finally I got it and am thinking of making more of it in different colors. As usual I love to play with colors hehehe....it's fun! More ketupat ribbon cards coming soon! ;)

Mosque.... pink + brown

HR008 (vertical)

HR009 (horizontal)

HR008 & HR009

I made something similar to the Raya cards I made recently.....the cards you see here are in my opinion is more suitable to be given to the ladies because of the color combination :). There is pink and brown and some white and beige.....love it! Sweet! hehe...

If you look closely at the crescent moon, I made it using white foam and decorate it with some silver glitters! The cards are the same size as the Raya cards I made before, which is 10.4cm x 14.7cm. The cards come with a matching soft pink handmade envelope. The inside of the card has a beige colored paper inserted on the inside for writing in personal wishes. :)

Mosque....

HR006 (vertical) and HR007 (horizontal)

I tried.....I really did.....but all that came out from the trials were these two designs that looks just a little too simple hehehe. I made these two cards last night after thinking hard on how to go about it hehehe......I made a few other designs but I hated how they looked and can only be happy with the ones I am posting here. As you can see I wrote the wordings on the card myself instead of printing it just to see how it looks :) I still think if I print it, it will look better but I'm just experimenting this time around with my own handwriting hehehe....

I find it kinda awkward working in this new place too :S....I'm still trying to adjust to the new working environment. Since I haven't been working for almost 3 months now, I find it quite challenging when I start working again. I'm also searching for the best spot in the house where I can take the photos of the cards. So far I haven't found a comfortable spot yet hehehe.....as you can see the photos I took did not turn out that nice huhuhuhu.......Suddenly I find myself lost.....don't know where to start.....blurred and dizzy all at the same time hehehee......hopefully in time I will be alright.....but at the same time I'm so scared because a lot of people are putting such high hopes on me to produce something really pretty for them and all I can come up with is these two simple designs huhuhuhuhu.......I'm feeling the pressure now :S. Yikes!

Even though these designs are simple, I'm actually thinking of creating more of these in different color combination......hehehe...well, that's me....just love playing around with colors.... ;)

These cards are quite small in size. It's 10.4cm x 14.7cm and is left blank on the inside. I haven't made any envelopes yet for these cards but the envelopes can be soft blue or beige in color. Either two colors are suitable for the cards. I really appreciate any suggestions from everyone about the designs. It will help me to improve whatever needs improving hehehe......thank you!

XOXO
Lin

Back to work......

Ok....I am back in Alor Setar, been here almost 2 weeks now.......so everything is about 80% settled here....I've still got a lot of organizing work to do in my studio but because of the time constraint I got to put that aside and start thinking about work....hmmmph!!! I'm also still not that well, still having this flu and bad cough. :( Been to the doctors for check up twice already over the past 3 weeks and still the flu and cough is there probably because I have not had enough rest. I'm really hoping that I will be better before the fasting month.

I've given it a lot of thought and decided that I can't take anymore custom made orders. Why? Because of my PC problem.....it's just difficult to work if the PC starts to act up every now and then. It's easier if I just prepare the cards that I like and sell them here rather than custom make them for my customers.......it's just too time consuming as well and time is something I don't have much of especially since I'm doing this all by myself. And since I am not only making cards for a living, I'm also doing other types of craft and selling them online, it's just becoming too much for me to handle.

I know a lot of people would be upset to hear this but I have no choice. I can only do what I can and this is what I can do for now. I do accept suggestions if there is something that you would like to see in my collection then I can consider making them for you BUT only at my own time. I will try to make the collection of cards here more interesting for everyone. I know I can't please everyone and I can't promise anybody anything.....what I can do is make myself happy and then perhaps it will show in my artwork..... :) makes sense??? It does to me hehehe.....

I am currently busy preparing my new card collection.....hope to post photos of them here soon! Till then!

XOXO
Lin

Alhamdulillah.....

It's been a while since I last blogged here......a lot has happened in the past few weeks....been about 5 weeks now I think....wow...that's a long time. A lot of good things and bad things that happened. There were times when I was so depressed that I just didn't want to talk to anyone. But I am blessed to have good friends who gave me a lot of support....and I also got a lot of support from family and everyone I know too. So it's been really great to get some words of encouragement.....as that is what I use to keep me going through tough times. Thank you all.....it means a lot to me.... :)

Alhamdulillah, I am slowly recovering....been following closely to the advice from my doctor and also been going on a strict healthy diet. So, slowly but surely I am positive about getting better. I just can't wait to get back to work again. I am also in the midst of preparing for the big move....I have decided on moving to Alor Setar to live with my Mom there. So far, everything has been going smoothly with the preparations. Am doing some final packing and then all will be moved back there by end of July :) .

I am also happy that today an article about me came out in Utusan Malaysia......Alhamdulillah....this is one of the best thing that happened to me since I got sick. It also has given me some hope and motivation to continue doing what I love in life. I know that I must never giving up hope, never feel negative about myself and to appreciate what God has given me all these years. You can view the article HERE at my personal blog.

I am hoping that I will be able to start resuming back to work in middle of August. I have a lot to do once I head back to Alor Setar....a lot of stuff to unpack and rearrange in the new place. Gosh I hope there is enough space for all of my stuff there......there are just so many things!!! arrgghhh! Whatever it is, I only have about less than 2 weeks to settle down there....and then start taking orders and start working again. I have to remember not to over work otherwise I'll get sick.....wouldn't want that to happen again right??? ......all work and no rest will make Lin a sick and dull person hehehehe......Wish me luck guys...wish me good health too....I sure do need both of them real bad hehehe.... ;)

The Big Move.....

Hmmmm.........where do I begin...... Let's just start by saying that I am MOVING AWAY.....moving to another place, a totally different environment...... :( I'm just overwhelmed with emotions right now....feels sad to leave this place.....but I don't have much of a choice. Been thinking of moving since last year, but the plan was postponed due to the orders I've been getting at that time..... Where to you might be wondering? I will update about the location when the time comes......but for now I'm just concentrating on the move......doing a lot of packing, little by little and some important matters to settle as well before I go.

Not many of you know about my situation right now......to be honest, I really am not well.....I don't really like to mention here what's wrong with me.....only my family and close buddies know what's going on. And I like to keep it that way......for now. It's just sad talking about it..... :( This is one of the reasons why I am moving away..... I can't afford to stay here alone....I can't afford to work at a normal pace.....I can only do if I have the energy to do so. I just have to figure out another way of finding income that would not jeopardize my health. Something that will work for me and my customers.....a win- win situation so to speak......

I told my Mom......it's weird how it all turns out......I never wanted to move in the first place, even though she told me so and now whether I like it or not, I have to......it's like a domino effect.....everything just came falling down.....first I got really sick....then the computer broke down, which completely stopped me from doing any work......from there things just kept going wrong....as if it was meant to be....It was time to leave.... It is a hard fact for me to accept, but maybe there will be a much better life for me some place else...... I really hope so....

All I want to do now is concentrate on getting better.....focus on the move as well......and if ever I get the chance to create, I will........ till then.....I guess this blog will be very very quiet and empty for the next couple of months.....I hope it won't take that long to update......will try my best to do what I can..... bye bye for now guys.......hope to blog here again soon.....wish me luck!

Happy Birthday Mak Ngah

HB041

Oh my gosh......it has been quite a long time since I last posted anything here..... :( . I made this card design last month for my dear aunt but was not able to post it in this blog because of the PC problem....even though the PC has been "fixed" but most of the time it acts up and honestly I'm getting pretty frustrated with it. I can't afford to buy a new one yet so I have to be patient with this one. Because of this problem I have not been taking any orders online......so I have to find income in other ways.....boohooohoooooo :(

OK, let's talk about the design......I wanted so badly to do this design for a long time now.....got the idea of doing a pop up vase with flowers from the Extreme Cards and Paper Crafting blog.....gosh, there are just so many interesting tutorials there to try......I learned about how to assemble my 7 flower pop up there as well. :) Since I've been so into making designs that looks like quilt or shall I say looks like embroidery designs.....so I did it again here....with a combination of pink and brown....so sweet, sweet like my dear aunt hehehe......

The pop up vase and flowers were so hard to do......I guess the hard part would be to arrange the flowers in the vase and make it look organized and pretty at the same time.....and the important thing is that it has to pop up nicely! ha! It really really tested my patients hahahaha..... ;) I guess it will be a while till I will do this design again because I think I would have to be in a really good mood to do it......otherwise I would tear it all up!! LOL!

I'm just happy that my aunt loved it so much.....that made everything worth while ;)

Offline........

Dear all..................

I have yet another announcement to make.....I will be offline from tomorrow onwards for at least a week......this is because my computer needs some "fixing". Actually I'm not so sure how it's going to work out.....but I hope that it will not take too long for them to fix it as I will miss my darling PC badly hehehe.......

I will try to check my mails from the internet cafe within that period in case any of you guys sent me emails inquiring about the cards.

Till then..... ;)

Important announcement

Dear all.........

As of today, due to unforeseen circumstances, I won't be able to take anymore orders until further notice. Truly sorry for the inconvenience.

For those who have placed their orders earlier, especially those who have already made the payments, please don't worry as I will be sure to get your orders done as promised.

Thank you.
Lin

Happy Mother's Day... :)

MD007

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL MOMMIES AROUND THE WORLD!!!!

For Moms.....

MD006

I think I'm just so into this new embroidery look hehehe......so much so that I've been doing a lot with the arrangements.....hehehe....don't know why I just like it so much. Will be coming out with more of different arrangements and color combination soon.

Pop up flowers in a pot

HB040

A birthday card for an old friend......my aunt's dear friend, Kak Ann....I think they have known each other for more than 20 years now....My aunt wanted me to do a pop up card for her dear friend. I've been thinking of a design for a long long long time......my ideas have dried up! hahaha! Plus I was not in the mood to create lately.....just don't feel like creating anything.....just want to go to the beach and relax....huhuhuhu....But since a promise is a promise....I had to fulfill it.

Inspired by one of the designs I did for my Teacher's day cards.....I expanded the idea and made it in a bigger card with a different combination of colors. In the beginning I wanted to do a different pop up design.....and the layout design for the card had to be vertical in order for me to do that....but a slight mistake in the printing, made me change the layout. I printed the wordings too big for the vertical design.....so that's how it ended up being horizontal. I had fun arranging the flowers and the leaves on the card......it looks like an embroidery design or something hehehe....

As for the pop up.....I've longed wanted to do the box pop up technique....I should have made the box a bit smaller in width so that the pot would be able to hide it...hehehe....I kinda like this technique as it is easy to do and you can paste any object on it to make it pop up. :)

Kak Ann's birthday is on the 10th of May......Hope she will love the card :) Happy Birthday Kak Ann!!!!! ;)

Pattern 3

TD008 (soft blue + purple + white + pink)

I simply love this combination of colors as they are looking so soft and sweet! Very cool colors.....which is quite contrasting to the colors that you will see at the card below ;)

TD008 (red + pink + white + peach)

As you can see this combination of colors are warm and cozy :) This design layout is so simple and suitable for all sorts of occasions.....like for a Thank you card, a Hello or Just for you......those would be suitable with this design in my opinion. :)

These cards are the size of a note card ( 10.4cm x 14.7cm). Each comes with a matching handmade envelope.

Twin girls together forever!

HB039

Twins! It's a first for me to do a birthday card for twins. When I first got the request from my customer....Aizat (he wanted me to mention his name hehehe), I thought to myself, wow......how on earth shall I do this?? Especially when he said that he wanted the twins to be holding each others hands or make it look like as if they were hugging each other! Ack!! Knowing how limited my skills were when it comes to doing figures, I even asked him to ask someone else to do this design for him.....but he insisted I do this! So, in the end, he had to wait and wait and wait.......it took me almost or was it over a month to get the idea and figure out how to go about doing it hahaha..... ;)

Why choose the color pink and brown you might wonder?? Well....that's because I asked him what are the twin girl's favorite colors. Fizah loves brown and Zimah loves pink! He went through a lot of trouble to find that out from the twins! hahaha! So after that, I got the idea to use those colors as the main colors for their clothes....I decided to do the baju kurung moden hehehe.....I already knew how to do the top part, it is similar to the blouse pattern I've done before....all that is needed is to add the long skirt below. And as for the skarf....I got the info from him that the twin girls are studying at a religious school.....so both of them wear the skarves....luckily I asked! Otherwise I had to think of how to do their hair! hahah! Yikes! That would be a major problem for me to do hehehe...... I also found out that both of them wear rectangular shape glasses.....just like me! LOL! So I added those details too....hehehe....

As for the big red heart shape behind the twins and the wording "Together Forever", that was Aizat's idea.....he wanted it that way.....I just had to figure out how to do the design layout. :) The heart shape pop up inside the card, was my idea hehehe......at first Aizat wanted me to do a pop up of the twins hugging each other but I didn't know how to do that although I tried and tried, it didn't work out the way I wanted it....so I had to cancel that idea and do the V-fold heart shapes instead. This way, I could add some wordings.....such as the names of the twins and birthday wishes.......and since he wanted some space on the inside for him to write out personal wishes for both the girls, this pop up design would be most suitable as there are plenty of space on the left and right side of the card for him to do so. :)

I really hope the twins will be happy when they receive this birthday card from their dear brother.....they sure are lucky to have a brother who cared enough to do this for them :) So sweet! :) I'm just happy that I get to do this in the end......almost gave up half way.....but sometimes when people believe in you so much, it's kinda hard to let them down......so, I just did the best I could, and the only way I knew how...... :)

Pattern 2

TD007 (orange + blue + pink + white)

TD007 (purple + blue + peach + white)

This is another pattern I did with the same flowers and leaves. I only changed the arrangement of the flowers and leaves to create a design pattern on the card. Each card is left blank on the inside and has a matching white paper inserted to write on personal wishes.

Pattern 1

TD006 (cream + pink + brown)

Ok, I guess I am simply in love with this embroidery type of design hehehe......so much so that I have created a few arrangements or patterns of them for the Teacher's Day Cards this year. You'll see more of the patterns after this......all with different sets of color combination. :)

Bookmark + Card

TD006 (yellow + purple + pink + white)
*added ribbon beaded bookmark

This design is totally different from what I've done before.......it's a combination of a card and a ribbon beaded bookmark. At first it was suppose to be a paper beaded bookmark but in the end I had to used the ribbon beaded bookmark instead because it was kinda difficult to do the paper bookmark according to my customer's request. The receiver of this card can take out the bookmark from the card by untying the soft pink ribbon that ties the ribbon beaded bookmark to the card.

For the inside of the card, I added decorations of the flower for the left side of the page.....the flower is actually the design from my latest teacher's day paper beaded bookmark. My customer wanted me to add that design in this card. It has on it the wordings, Happy Teacher's Day on the flower and leaves. The right side of the card has the poem that is dedicated to the teacher. Really lovely wordings picked out by my customer herself. :)

Again as you can see the color combination is of yellow and purple as it's the color based on the school's logo. My customer ordered a few of these cards for the teachers there. :) I really hope the teachers will love the card that they will be receiving soon hehehe.....

Teacher's day pop up flowers

TD003 (Purple and Yellow combo)

Ok...this is what I have been busy doing lately along with the other card orders I've been receiving lately. This particular design is actually an old one I did back in 2007. But my customer loved the design so much that she wanted the same one except the color combination has to be of yellow and purple as this card design will be given to the teacher's of her former school. Their school logo has those two colors....purple and yellow.

The other differences are that this card will be added the 7 pop up flowers. I had a hard time thinking of a suitable flower shape that would match the flowers in the front design. In the end, I decided to do something that resembles it, and made the small scallops on the petals of the pop up flowers. The decorations on the inside of the pop up flowers are similar to the decorations I did for the CNY cards. I happen to love that decorations.....can't think of any other that would look nice at the moment though. Perhaps in future I'll get some new ideas. I wish! ;)

MU team color...

HB025 (RED & YELLOW COMBO)

Ok....this was what happened...I got this order to do the HB025 card design....BUT!!! With a Manchester United team color hehehe! Why? Because my customer's father is a big MU fan :). See how flexible I am? I'm willing to change the color of the original design for my customer's satisfaction hehehe.......So this is the result of the changes I did with the color combination.

Of course the layout remained the same....the only changes I did was to the color of the paper, ribbons and of course not forgetting the buttons. I had fun coloring the soccer ball though....black and white hehee.....and I even added one at the back of the envelope. :) Hope he loves the card! I wish! I wish! LOL!

Back from the dead......LOL!

Dear all.........

Good news......I took my dead hand phone to the hand phone hospital and met with the "specialist" and believe it or not....it came back from the dead! I just couldn't believe it....it's ALIVE AGAIN!! It didn't even have to be warded for a few days LOL!.......I went there for just about half an hour and then it was all ready to go! I thought I might have to buy myself a new one.....luckily it could still be saved and therefore this saves a lot of my money as well hahahaha..... :D

The bad news is I lost all the contact numbers inside it....sob sob..... :( All contacts numbers of my friends, family and customers.....SO.....now I have to add in everything all over again! I hate it when these things happen......especially since I don't have all those numbers written down anywhere else. I guess I just have to wait for them to contact me back in order for me to get their numbers back again hahahaha.....!

Anyways......I guess there won't be a "funeral" after all........hahahaha! Yay!!!

Important info....

Dear all......

Sadly to announce that today my hand phone decided to stop functioning for the 4th or 5th time....I lost count hahaha......so in other words, it died today..... (due to natural causes I suppose hahaha).

So.......in the mean time while I get this problem fixed, I'm not able to use my Maxis number......and therefore you (my dear beloved customers) will not be able to contact me on that number as well......

If you have any inquiries regarding the orders ......please do so via email at my email address : inaabdul_21@yahoo.com or can call or sms me at my personal number : 019 - 3634006

Truly sorry for any inconvenience.........

Brown and blue.....

HB038

I saw in my research in the net and magazines, quite a few designers who have used this color combination......especially the combination of dark brown and sky blue.....I just added some white and silver to it hehehe :) Really love this color combination especially since my favorite color is blue. I've always wanted to try out this combination and at last I did it hehee....

This birthday card was a request from a customer who wanted something simple....not too overly romantic and yet meaningful.....for her BF heheh..... :)

The card has a white paper inserted on the inside. I added some printed wordings in it as per request........and the card has a matching soft blue handmade envelope.

Bunny out of the easter egg!

ED006

The 3rd design! Ok....at first I wanted to use foam for the big Easter egg.....but somehow it didn't turn out well.....so I opted to use a thicker paper instead...much easier to work with :).

The original design was to have the little yellow chick in the egg.....but my customer preferred the bunny instead, so I changed it as per request hehe....the bunny looked a little blur here....must be wondering what happened hehehe.....

A very simple design but colorful and bright! No wordings on the inside and there is a peach color paper on the inside for writing in personal wishes.......included together with the card is a soft yellow handmade envelope :)

A stack of easter eggs!

ED005

Ok, here is the second design from the order.....this time around I came up with an idea of using multicolored Easter eggs stacked up on the green bushes......I wanted to make grass....but I thought the bushes were easier to do and looked better than the spiky grasses.....hahaha

This little white bunny was also hand drawn and hand cut......just like the Easter eggs and bushes too. The bunny has that plastic eye as well....hehehe.....love that! The cute little teeny tiny butterflies were made using the craft punch. I just bought that punch a few weeks ago and thought of using it for this project.....really love those cute little butterflies hehehe..... :)

Easter bunny hopping around.....

ED004

I must admit, it has been a long time since I last made any Easter cards......the last time I made any was in 2007 for my first online customer! hehehe! And the Easter cards were the first order I got from her .... :)

As usual I wanted to make something that looks cute....heheh....hopefully I achieved that.....you guys be the judge ok?? :D I used sweet soft pink card and olive green mixed with dark brown....love that combination! The bunny has a small plastic eye that can move whenever you shake it! Love that touch.....but lately I have trouble finding those teeny tiny plastic eyes at the store....couldn't find any to buy there huhuhu.......only the bigger eyes are available...I wonder why.....

The Easter bunny are hand drawn and cut out by hand....including all the Easter eggs.... :) A lot of work there.....especially cutting out the easter eggs.....since they are so small...

The card is left blank on the inside.....since no wordings were requested. The card has a soft pink paper inserted on the inside and has a matching handmade envelope too.

Graduation day card.....

GD001

I received a request to do a graduation card recently.......and it was up to me to decide how to design it.....I had total freedom! Yay! The journey begins!

I find that a very simple layout can be made difficult simply by the motif itself. I had a vision of how the graduation robe would look like but didn't know how to go about making the hat hahaha.......I wanted to do the tassel a bit bigger for the hat but didn't know how......so I ended up using just a gold string and opening up the ends to make it look like a tassel hehehe...... LOL!

I just didn't know how else to decorate the card......the card itself is quite big....it's half the size of an A4 paper......so there were a lot of space to fill up hehehe......I ended up decorating the empty spaces with punched out pattern of a sun and I simply love this new pattern, it's really pretty ( at least I think so hehehe ).......by right the pattern that I should have used is stars .....but since I don't have that pattern, I decided that the sun would look just as nice! :) After all the sun is a star as well right?? A really really big one! hehehe! Eddhie is now a shining star! One with a bright future ahead of him! :) Congrats!!!

Dora the Explorer

HB037

Another order with a little challenge! Yes indeed! When I heard that my customer was interested with the theme "Dora the Explorer" .....I went like....WHO???? hahaha.....I don't even know the character hehehe! LOL! I'm not really familiar with the new cartoon characters.....I only know just a few.....so I had to do a little research for this order....hehehe. :)

I think everyone who's been following my work would know that I'm not the expert when it comes to doing figures! Yup! I'm no expert in that! As you can see here.....Dora looks like....errrmmmmm......I think I better leave the comments to myself hahahaha.....LOL! But at least I tried my best to make it look like Dora....luckily Dora's figure is not extremely difficult to draw...otherwise I just don't know how I would have done it. The only person I know who can do figures really well is my blogger friend Teddie.....you can view his pop up handmade cards here. I love how he does the figures...... :) Really pretty! I need to learn more on this..... :) Learn.....I must hehehe........

Pop up lips with hearts

V014

I had fun with this one.....as usual when there is pop up involved, it's always fun and challenging too. But I do love simple pop ups.....mainly because they are easier for me to do LOL! hehehe......I'm still learning!

My customer wanted a pop up lip or pop up hearts inside the card.....so I thought why not just combine the two together :). At first I was thinking of using the printed lips of a girl that I normally use for my pop up lips card, but I decided to do something different this time. By making my own paper lips instead of using the printed one, I get to decorate it with glitter glue and also added the golden heart shape at the center :)

The front design is similar to the pop up lips card I made before but I made some little changes to the original design to make it look a little different. I've always wanted to do the heart shape with scallops at the edges of the heart shape.......and I got to do it here....and loving how it turned out. :)

Golf theme....

HB036

Golf theme.....this is a request from my customer that I thought was pretty interesting :) The card design is actually a father's day card I made last year, with football as the theme.....but since he love the design and colors, he wanted to change the football to a golf theme instead. And so I did as he requested. :)

I was thinking of how to go about it when I suddenly thought of the foam I have that would be so suitable for this color combination as it is also white in color. So I drew the shape of a golf bag and decorated it with some glitter glue...... the white dots you see around the cards are actually supposed to be golf balls hehehe.....LOL! I had this white paper that I thought had the texture similar to a golf ball.....hehehe.....what a coincidence..... :). For the golf sticks, I used a metallic silver paper......

It was a fun project....... :)

The final design......

HB031 (WITH RIBBON STRIPES)

Hello everyone! Glad to be back at home now......just came back from my short trip to my hometown to deliver some card orders for my Mom's high school reunion. It was indeed quite a challenging project.....the final design was a last minute decision.....a few things from the design had to be altered and I had a panic attack! I changed a few things from the original design, simply because of stock problem and also because of wanting it to look fancier.....There wasn't enough of this...there wasn't enough of that! And I had to do some searching for the materials here and there and everywhere just to make sure the design looks good. Gosh.....I almost gave up but even though it was so challenging, I had to carry on because time was limited and I just had to make good decisions to make it work! Funny how it all turned out in the end.......managed to finish all of the 50 pieces of cards on the day of the distribution itself!!! Phew! My Mom was so worried that I couldn't make it on time.....hahahaha.....but I did it in the end! It was so crazy hahaha.....Never felt so exhausted making cards before......I think this was the worst exhausting card making experience ever! :D

Am so sorry that the photos of the cards are not that clear......I took the photos right after they were done.....and at that time it was already in the evening....so, the lighting was not good, plus the photographer (that's me), was too tired to take good photos hahahaha!! LOL!

I'm just glad that I managed to get the cards done and they are happy with the cards.....that's what's important.... I certainly learned a lot from this project..... :)

Will be away.......

To all my dearest customers......

I have an important announcement to make......I will be going away for awhile tomorrow......way up north, for a few days.....got some important things to settle there and some deliveries of cards to my dearly beloved Mom hehehe!

So......I won't be able to have access to the internet for a few days! Urrrgggghhhh! That means I won't be able to reply any emails regarding orders or inquiries regarding my handmade cards for a while.......however, if you have anything that you wish to inquire or order....please do email me about it and I will reply them as soon as I get back to KL.....sorry for the inconvenience!

THANKS! :)

March 2009 : FULLY BOOKED!

Dear all valued customers..........

Truly sorry to inform everyone that for this month, my schedule is fully booked! Therefore, I won't be able to take anymore orders for this month. However, you are welcomed to book your orders starting 1st of April 2009......

* A little note for serious buyers only.....

For those who are interested to place an order......... please, please allow at least 1 weeks time for me to complete your orders......completion of the orders depend on the quantity of the cards you ordered....the more you order, the longer it takes for me to complete them for you. I work alone therefore I need ample time to make them.

Also, I would like to add that I will only proceed with your order once payment has been made upon confirmation of the order. If you fail to make the payment within the time allocated, I will not entertain your order (in other words, I won't make the cards for you hehehe)......please please understand, I only take serious buyers only.....thank you for your kind understanding of my situation..... :)

Blouse full of sequins!

HB035

I love this one!!! Can't help it, I sure do love it......I feel so sad to part with this one today.....it will be leaving me shortly once I put it in the mailbox to be posted to my customer hehehe! This idea came from my customer herself.....she loved the V012 buttons and sequins card so much but wanted it to be in the form of a bag or clothes or shoes.....so I decided to do a blouse instead! hehehe!

This was so much fun! I had to first figure out what type of blouse to draw and then I glued all the sequins on it...one by one! Sounds like a lot of work right? You got that right! It took me hours to get this one done! But it was well worth the trouble..... :)

I also love the paper bag I drew on the inside of the card......first I drew it on a piece of white paper, then I cut it out and colored it a bit with gold lines.....look fancy shmancy? I think so hehehe.....not sure what people will think about it though but I don't care....coz I love it hehehe.....LOL! :)

You are 3!

HB034
THIS CARD IS CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK

I just got this order done and it's all set to be posted to my customer. It's similar to LBL012.....but a smaller version with wordings on the front of the card.......the original has only gift boxes....I had a hard time figuring out how to do this as the card was pretty small.....my mind just went blank! So I did what I had to do.....and did the best I could to make it look pretty. :)

I am enjoying the new craft punch I got last week......it's the shape of the sun... so cute. :) I love decorating it on the card....making it look fancy shmancy hehehe....I had them on the card, inside the card and on the back of the envelope too! I hope I didn't over do it! LOL! The gift boxes are super small and lightly decorated. This was fun! :)

Not more than Friend......

MBL079

Another order from my regular customer came about more than a week ago.....I was not able to get it done on the time she wanted it......so had to postpone it so that I can have time to prepare the card for her. Managed to get it done today and posted this afternoon.....phew!

This is a a blue, green, cream and white combo......suitable for a guy......but this card is a sad card.....just by reading the title, we can tell how sad it is huhuhuhuhu......... :( That's another reason why I used the color blue.........coz she's feeling blue......feeling sad.....

I tried using a different layout for this design and I like how it turned out...... :) First time ever writing wordings on ribbons too! Love it :)

Pop up guy catching a fish!

HB033

Oh this was fun! hehe! A fun design to make.....especially for the front of the card, loved it very much, but the design on the inside was the one that really tested my patience hehehe! My aunt's friend ordered this card for her hubby's birthday......and he LOVES to go fishing! So that's how this card came about. It's all about his love for fishing.....and I tried to translate it on this card.

I wanted to do something like this for a longest time but never had the guts to do it plus I didn't know how......so I did some research on the net on the shape of a guy holding a fishing rod. Gosh, this was so difficult to do.....urgggh!! I almost gave up. But I had no choice but to carry on as time was limited to find any other ideas. I had to stick to the original idea and just try to make it work!

I know I know......the guy does look a little funny right??? It looks as if he is holding a light saber instead of a fishing rod!! hahaha! But, hey......at least I tried!!! LOL! It was a good experiment though....hopefully in time I will be able to make it look better. :)

Selamat bersara En. Khairul....

R002

Another order from my aunt's friend.....Kak An :). This card is for their colleague who will be retiring this month. He has worked at that company since 1984......it's been 25 years...WOW! That's a long time to be working at the same place......such a loyal employee :).

I tried this new soft blue paper I got recently for this card design and mixed it with combination of silver, purple and white. I experimented with the ribbons and made the stripe patterns on the bottom design of the card using those 1/8 inch ribbons mixed with strips of color papers. Am loving that idea very much hehehe.......as it saves me a lot of time cutting out the paper strips.

This card is about half the size of an A4 paper, and comes with a purple handmade envelope. There is also a white paper inserted on the inside of the card for writing on personal wishes. :)

My first wedding invitation cards

WI001(Limited edition) WI002 (Limited edition)
THESE CARDS ARE CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK

I am so thrilled that all the wedding invitation cards are all done! This is the first time I was given the opportunity to do invitation cards for a wedding. I must say I was a bit intimidated at first and was really worried with the amount of work that will take place once I accepted this order. But luckily it was only for 90 pieces......But even so, I had a hard time getting them done in the short time frame. This was definitely a lot of work and time consuming.....but I felt so happy to see how happy my customer was when she received the cards from me.......she was glowing with joy hehehe! :)

The motif used was of course a wedding dress......using paper doily as the main element in the design.......but as you can see, there are two types of doily here since there wasn't enough doily for me to make a wedding dress for the black card design. My customer wanted the black one, but the doily was not enough to make 90 pieces of them.....so she decided that I do two different types, one black and one dark red.....45 pieces of each. Definitely these wedding cards are of limited edition......I won't be able to do the same ones again as those particular doily design are not available in stock. So if there is anyone who are interested in ordering something similar like these, I would have to use another type of doily design for the wedding dress. So in other words, these wedding dresses are one of a kind hehehe!

The wording on the front design, "Our Wedding" was handwritten by me...........I had to practice writing it many many times on a piece of paper before actually writing it down on the card itself. One slight mistake and all will be ruined! So I had to be careful.....can't make any mistake otherwise I would have to make them all over again.

I have learned a lot from this experience and I believe that I need to learn more in order to make the invitation cards in future. Especially learning how to do the map! Yup! Must learn how to make those hehehe.....Learn, I must! LOL!

Both designs are special in their own way..........the black one is special for the black paper, which is kinda expensive and it's doily design is unique.....with 2 color combination, silver and gold.....the dark red one is special for the tiny flower it has on neckline of the dress, I really love that touch! hehehe

Pop up fish......

Side view

Top view

HB032

I can't remember exactly when my cute little aunt ordered this pop up birthday card from me, but it was definitely quite a while back. She constantly reminded me about it over and over again....week after week.....then days after days.....and yet I never came down to doing it until just a couple of days ago. Honestly I was literally out of ideas.....my mind was occupied with other orders and work that had to be done and I kept postponing making this birthday card for her cute little friend. Then when the time was running out, the deadline was drawing nearer and nearer, I had to force my brain to function otherwise my cute little aunt would murder me for not doing this for her hahaha......LOL!

Her cute little friend loves to go fishing......with her family whenever she has the spare time. So in other words, fishing is the theme and my cute little aunt wants it to be a pop up fish or a pop up sailing boat. I was thinking of doing that sailboat but in the end decided to try this new technique I picked up from the net. It's a different type of pop up....but there weren't any with fish on it. So I had to create my own with the limited ideas in my small brain. :D

The front design is kept fairly simple with water and fishes hanging around spreading some "bubble love" hehehe.......spreading some love in other words, LOL! And on the inside I made it look like as if she managed to catch a fish with the red hot fish dangling from the string of the invisible fishing rod hehehe...... :D There are plenty of fish in the water left for her to catch too! hehehe......I definitely had fun making this design...... :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAK MUS!!! HAPPINESS ALWAYS TO YOU!!!

My first engagement invitation card

EI001

Phew! Finally all of the engagement invitation cards are done! Painstakingly made with lots of care and love as always. :) This engagement invitation card was custom made for a customer of mine from Sarawak. I almost wanted to turn down the order since I was afraid I couldn't get them all done on time.......but my customer managed to persuade me hehehehe......LOL

It looks like a simple design right? Nothing too fancy but when I got down to doing it in a large quantity I realized how hard it is to make them all by myself. This was a real challenge for me.

What I do love about this card design are the tag at the bottom of the card that has the initials of couples, with the gold strings on it too.....and the punch out engagement/wedding rings are so cute as well.....luckily I bought that craft punch when it was available at the store, so I can use it for this design and not have to cut out the rings one by one by hand. Ouch! That would have really hurt my hands. hehehe....

This invitation card comes in a postcard form. So there is only enough space for writing on wordings and no space for a map. It's simple, straight to the point and it delivers the message. :)

Happy 60th Birthday whenever it is.....

HB031 (WITHOUT NUMBER)
THIS CARD IS CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK

The photos of the card on top is an order I got from my customer to do a similar card just like HB031 but without the number 60th between the Happy Birthday......and she also wanted a 7 flower pop up inside it. I made something different with the flowers to make it look suitable for the card design. :)

HB031 (WITH NUMBER)
THIS CARD IS CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK

Ain't it just simply sweet? I really adore this new combination of colors. This card design is actually a request from my own Mommy hehehe....it's for her school girls gathering. Ex-students from the Sultanah Asma Secondary School who were Form 5 students in 1967 will be doing a gathering in Alor Setar sometime in March for the reunion. So this birthday card is to commemorate the occasion......as all of them will be turning 60 this year......whenever it is, which ever date or month it may be. So all of the ex students who will be attending this reunion will be getting one of this birthday card for themselves to keep.

The card is quite big.....bigger than what I usually make for my customers.....it's half of A4 in size. The envelope itself has to be big too in order to fit in the card....that was a challenge for me since I make all the envelopes myself. :)

I wanted the card to be soft and sweet looking.....pleasant to the eyes and cheerful looking too. I really hope they will love this card as much as I do.......hehehe.....made with lots of love!

1st Anniversary............

I wrote the dates of their wedding day on both of the big red heart shapes (07.02.08 - 07.02.09) exactly one year of marriage to each other hehehe......pops up at the top part of the card with smaller heart shapes with a combination of reds, beige and gold.....

Slowly opening up the card........to the see pop up hearts! :)

AC001

This card design is an order I got from one of my regular customer.......it's her 1 year wedding anniversary hehehe.....and so it's the first time I had to make an anniversary card :). With this customer....it's always a first time for me to do anything hehehe......and she always make me try new ideas......best kan???? :) She wanted a square card......and you know what??? I think I love this shape too! It's like one of those Memory Lane card shapes you can find in the market but this one is a bit smaller......couldn't make it any bigger than this! hehe!

I wanted to try a V fold pop up card......so I tried making one....and realized that this pop up version is kinda fun to do! Actually, anything that pops up from the card is fun! LOL! hehe! I love arranging the heart shapes on the V fold too.... :)

Valentines Day Promotions

Important updates for all customers of Lin Handmade Greetings Card!

In conjunction with the Valentines Day that's just around the corner.....I am collaborating with Miss Suzana from Little Flower Pot to give you a special promotion! I know I am a bit late with this promotion, but better late than never right? :) Here's what the promotion is all about!

Pre order your Valentines Day flower bouquet from Little Flower Pot and you will receive a FREE Valentines Day handmade greetings card!! The free handmade greetings cards are actually cards from my Valentines Day card collection:). Tomorrow (4th of February) will be the last day to pre order and get that free card.....so hurry hurry!!! There is still time for you to pre order the bouquets today and tomorrow to get your free card! Yay!!!

Contact Miss Suzana of Little Flower Pot and Gifts at:
Office: 03-88887177 , Mobile: 019-2517133

Check out the promotion at her website here:

http://www.littleflowerpot.com.my/

AND.......from 5th till the 9th of February this month.... I will be giving a special discount for any orders of the selected Valentines Day handmade greetings card. 10% discount will be given for those selected cards within that period. So don't forget to check out those discounted cards soon!

Baby stroller shaped card

NB005

I am so excited about this new baby gift card I made for my customer.....it's for her new born's majlis cukur jambul! :) She specifically wanted the shape of the card to be of a baby stroller. So I designed a simple one for her that would be suitable to be given as a Thank You card to her friends and relatives who have helped her during the ceremony......

This card is pretty small in size.....about 8.5cm wide x 8.5cm in length. It comes with a cute little handmade envelope that's soft green in color! So cute! :)

Buttons and sequins unite ( version 2 )

V012b

* This card design has a pop up heart inside it. This was a request from a customer of mine for his loved one. The pop up hearts is a similar pop up that I made for my Anniversary card, but I changed the colors of the hearts to match with the colors of the buttons and sequins on the front of the card. :)

The photos above shows another sample of V012a with the wordings "Happy Birthday".
This was a request from my customer :)

V012a

This is a new version of the V012 Valentine day card I designed earlier......I wanted to make the same design with a different color because I plan to give this to my Mom hehehe......and I know how much she loves this color combination compared to the other one. This new version has a mixture of orange, gold, beige, cream, peach, soft browns, yellow and sprinkles of red and white too.....I love this combination as it somehow looks very bright and cheerful.

There is no wordings on the inside, just like the original V012......so if you would like me to add in the wordings for you, or a pop up heart shape on the inside, that can be done too..... :)

Baby doll dresses

BD002
Silver doily on gold metallic paper.

BD001
Gold doily on silver metallic paper.

I got carried away with the paper doily lately :) I tried numerous patterns and the first was the wedding dresses.....now it's the baby doll dresses.....I still have a few more that I want to publish soon. But due to the heavy workload I have not been able to do so. For this particular design....I like to keep it simple, using a heavy stock card that has some texture on it.

This card comes with a matching beige handmade envelope. It has no paper inserted on the inside....no wordings either. But if you wish to request for wordings, I can do it for you with additional charges. This cute card is suitable for birthdays....especially for your little princess on her birthday :) .

The symbol of love

W008

White doves have always represented love, loyalty, fidelity and honesty......which is why I love using this motif for occasions such as weddings and engagement......perhaps for Valentine as well?? hehehe. For me, this design fits all..... :)

White butterflies

W007

Another postcard greeting I made which has two white butterflies flying with two wedding rings above them. It's very sweet and simple.....adding a wide white satin ribbon to match! :) I used simple scallops cut out at the four edges of the postcard, almost similar to my white doves postcard except that this one, if you look closely has no sharp points between the scallops.

You can write your wishes at the back of the postcard.......but if you wish for me to paste a piece of white paper at the back of the postcard for easier writing purposes, that can be done for you too. No problem at all......just let me know if your preference. :)

This card too can be sent to couples who are getting engaged as well as for couples who are getting married.....both occasions are suitable! :)

White doves...

W006

I just adore these two love birds ehehehe.....sweet little white doves facing each other...in love forever hehehe LOL! :) I'm trying out something new in my card making....which is making postcards greetings....so this design was made in the form of a postcard.....not folded. It's very simple, elegant and straight to the point. No ribbons or fancy decorations on it.....I like to keep it simple and neat.

The white doves were hand drawn and hand cut with scissors.....including the gold heart and gold rings.....I think, in this case...making the rings were the most difficult.....it's small and one slip of the finger and it will all be spoiled....so I had to be extra careful not to make a mistake....otherwise I would waste the paper... :)

I think that this card is not only suitable to be given for wedding occasions but also for couples who are getting engaged. :)

A silver wedding dress

W005b (Limited Edition)

This is another version of the wedding dress card series....the difference is in the wedding dress itself. I chose a light soft silver doily with rose flower as it's intricate lace for the dress. Love it! :) I also did a different type of cut for the top part of the dress. A lot more simpler than the gold wedding dress.

The inside of the card, I place a white paper for writing on personal wishes. It matches the white handmade envelope too. :)