My first Japanese hand-bound book

Tadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!! My first ever handmade book! I have always wanted to make one except that I didn't know how to do it. But after doing some research about it online, I found some tutorials that was easy for me to follow and understand. I gotta say thanks to all those teachers I found on Youtube and Pinterest that shared their tutorials on making handmade books. Without them, I wouldn't have been able to make this book on my own. 

There are so many different types of handmade books for me to try out but since I'm a beginner, I wanted to try out something simple. Since I didn't have the proper tools and materials to make a handmade book, I decided to try making the Japanese hand-bound book because it's a lot easier than the rest and I could use my ribbons to bind the papers together. I have tons of ribbons available so this type of book is the best for me to try out for now. I didn't even have a proper board to use to make the cover for the book. I had only a mounting board available so I just used that and wrapped it with a wrapping paper I got from Wholeport. I distress the cover with a sweet coloured distress ink at all four corners and decorated it with some quilled shapes of flowers and leaves. Very simple. 

I was just too excited to get it done, I didn't bother to make it too fancy. I just wanted to get it done! LOL! It's a great feeling once you know how to do it and seeing it done for the first time. It's an indescribable feeling. I'm so happy I managed to do this before the year ends. It's one of the things I wanted to do this year and I did it! Yay!!!

Not sure if I will have the time to make another one, because I have a very busy schedule till end of this year.....but I gotta say that it is very interesting and fun to make a handmade book and I never knew that it would be something that we can all do ourselves at home. It's really nice to have a pretty handmade book for us to give as gifts to loved ones or for us to use ourselves. For those who have never tried it before, do give it a try! It's so worth it!!! ;)

Cutting words out of die-cut alphabets

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It all started a few days ago when I was playing and experimenting with the die-cut alphabets that made me thought of using them to cut out wordings on card stocks. In the beginning I was not too keen on doing it because it would be mean that I would have to separate the die-cut alphabets into individual pieces. I hated doing that because I loved looking at them all joined together. I'm weird no? haha!

But for the love of experiments, I did what I had to do...huhuhu! But I'm glad now that I did that because otherwise I wouldn't be able to try out this technique. Check out the photo above where I did the wordings "thank you" using the die-cut alphabets. I love the fact that I can arrange them any way I like on the card. At first I arranged them in a straight line before cutting them with the die-cut machine.......but after a while I got bored and arranged them randomly like the one I did for the swing card below.

For the wordings on the note size card you see above, I used a scrap pattern paper to layer behind the cut out alphabets, but for the swing card below, I used a shiny transparent fabric and white paper to layer behind the cut out alphabets. So cutting out the alphabets on card stocks are fun because it reminds me of what I did before with my bookmarks. You can view a sample of what I did with my bookmarks at the links HERE and HERE. It's similar in concept but different in technique because the one I did for my bookmarks were cut out by hand using a craft knife. That was a lot harder to do compared to using die-cut alphabets.

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I think by far, this is the simplest swing card design I've ever made. The only thing that is difficult to do for me is the blending of the distress ink on each corner of the card because I'm still learning how to control the blending tool. Sometimes it works really well, sometimes it doesn't but I can't blame it on the blending tool, I must blame myself because I'm not getting enough practice. Must practice more. ;)

October 2013 Blog Giveaway

October is here and so is another giveaway for my loyal readers. I thought of giving away some foam die-cut patterns that I have in my collection. The lace heart shape glittered foam die-cut patterns are my most favourite among the items I'm giving away ;) !

If you love foam embellishments and would love to try your luck in winning these foam candies, do follow the instructions below to enter this giveaway:

Rules of the giveaway:
1. Everyone is eligible to enter. I accept local and international entries, but you may only enter once.
2. You have to promote this giveaway at your site, either at your blog, or at your facebook profile. Just make sure you put the link of this giveaway at your site so that anyone who visits your site can see it.
3. Copy the link of where you promoted this giveaway and paste it at Mr Linky below. Do write your real name there too.
4. Please "LIKE" my Facebook Page at the link HERE and please "Follow" my blog here too.

Well, that's it. That is all you have to do to enter this giveaway. Simple rules to follow :)

This giveaway starts today and ends at 12.00AM on 1st of November 2013.

BLOG GIVEAWAY CLOSED.

 

A birthday card from Sandi ;)

I just wanted to share with everyone today a birthday card I received yesterday from a dear friend of mine, Sandi Staley. I can't help it, I just had to feature it here because it's different from the cards I've seen before.

Although it looks very simple, but I love the colours she had chosen for the card.....it's definitely her favourite choice of colours.....she loves earthy tones. I like her idea of using 2 pieces of thick card stock and binding them together using those big silver brads. I've never done something like this before but it would be nice to give it a try because when you open the card, it kinda reminds me of a book :).

I also like the paper leaves she used to decorate the card with....I think she used a special kind of paper that has shiny texture on it. Love that. I'm wondering what kind of glue she used to paste the paper leaves on the metal sheet. I gotta ask her about that! ehehe!

The use of distress ink is also visible at the sides of the card and also for the paper inlaid inside the card. She didn't blend the ink at the sides of the paper but rather just dabbed the sides of it for contrast. I like that!

Thank you dear Sandi! I've always been a fan of your handmade cards ;)

Winner of September 2013 Blog Giveaway

Hello everyone! It is that time of the month again when I have to make an  announcement regarding my monthly blog giveaway. 

The winner is Miss Mardhiah Ahmad Tajuddian. Please email me your fulll details and  phone number so that I can post the gifts to you. Congratulations once again!!!! ;)

I'm preparing some die cut patterns for Octber's blog giveaway......I will blog about it soon! Thanks again to everyone who participated in Seltember's giveaway! ;)