Personalised Gift Items from PRINTCIOUS - REVIEW

Hello everyone!!

You must be wondering what that Keep Calm shirt is all about right? Well, I'm super excited today to share with you guys about this awesome website I recently discovered called PRINTCIOUS. That's where I got that awesome shirt from. It's a Malaysian website that sells an assorted range of DIY personalised gift items and photo gift ideas that you can purchase for you and your loved ones. What I love the most about these gifts is that you can customize them to make them one of a kind and probably something that only you own in this world! That's so cool right? You can design any of the products they offer at their website and then get them delivered safely to you at your doorstep super fast. No more hassle of driving to town to shop for gifts. This will save your energy and money too. Love this idea!

I had to create an account with PRINTCIOUS before I can start designing the products that I wanted and for me registering was super easy. You can even log in straight from your Facebook account if you want. Upon registration, I straight away browsed through all the products available and saw how easy it was to use the online design tools. Super easy guys! Not difficult at all. The only thing difficult for me was to choose which photos, sentiments or quotes that I wanted to use! I have so many lovely photos to choose from, and so many things I wanted to write that I had a hard time making up my mind! Haha!

Seriously, I had fun designing the products on the website. Even though my schedule was tight and I didn't get enough time to spend designing, but I think I did OK with my limitations. I was happy with what I came up with. The online design tools they provided on the website were user friendly and easy enough to understand. I'm not that computer savvy and yet I have no problems using it at all. Even if I did have one, they have a message box on the website where you can directly contact them if you have inquiries. Cool!

Printcious offers about 30 different products that you can create with your personal design on it. My favourites would be designing the T-shirt, Mug and Bag. Other products available are Mini Tees, Cushions, Phone cases, Baby rompers, Ceramic Tiles, Engraved gifts, Puzzles, Mouse Pads, Coasters, Button badges, Caps, Canvas, Keychains, Magnets, Lanyards, PVC cards, Aprons, Luggage tags, Door hangers, Photo rocks, Stickers, Money banks, Clocks, Trophies, Sport flasks, Necklaces, Table flags and Buntings. 

They also have 7 special occasions available for you to pick from such as Birthdays, Anniversary, New Baby, Wedding, Graduation, Engagement and Christening. You can Design Your Own products or Shop With Templates that they provide which makes it easier for you. I love to Shop With Templates! This is great for those who are in a hurry to get gifts and don't have much time to spare to go find one at the shop. You can just pick any templates for the products you fancy and simply add in photos and text to make it special. There's also Corporate Gifts that you can order in bulk for corporate events. You can design exclusive merchandise for your event and have them print the design on them in large quantities.

One more cool thing that PRINTCIOUS offer is the an awesome Photo Booth rental. They have a team of professional photographers that aim to inject doses of fun to your corporate events, product launching, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries or any party you are hosting. They provide the props, backdrops, photo printouts that can be turned into gifts! You really have to check this one out! It looks like super fun!

OK! Back to the personalised gifts that I designed and ordered from PRINTCIOUS! I just love every item that I received! I can't wait to use them. I already tried the T-Shirt on and it is super soft and comfortable to wear. The mug is definitely going to be used every single morning of every single day! LOL! Every time I look at it, it will remind me of my loved ones. The photo rock is going to be in my craft room! The words written on it will inject some good vibes in me every time I enter my room. 

Designing the cotton T-Shirt was really fun. I just had to design a T-Shirt that has the word Quilling on it! LOL! I mean why not right?? I love quilling and I do it every day. I never had one done for me before and now is the right time to have one of my own. And Printcious made it happen for me, I couldn't be more happy! I used the Shop With Templates to pick that Rainbow Smile T-Shirt template and then added the word "Just" and "KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON QUILLING" on my own. There’s quite a lot of font to choose from but not a lot of colours for me to pick but it doesn’t matter because I think the colours given worked for me.

OH MY GOD....I have to say that this mug is my MOST FAVOURITE among all of the personalised items I designed! Because photos of my baby girl is printed on the mug and also photo of my beloved Mother is on there too! Again I used the Shop With Template and picked this Sailing Near Sea mug template because my favourite colour is blue and I can add up to 4 photos on the mug and also write some text at the photos. It's so much fun to be able to see how the layout of the photos and text will look exactly on the mug before we even receive it. At least we have an idea of how the end product will look like. I will definitely get another mug soon! This is so great to be given as a birthday gift for friends or family as we can add photos of them on the mug. They would really love it! :)

First time ever I have my quilling artwork printed on products! Yay! One printed on a tote bag and the other on a magnet. My Mom really love that bag! I love it too! I guess we have to share it, haha! After uploading the photos and added them to the layout of the bag and magnet, I just Googled for some interesting quotes and wrote them on each item. Simple!

I think this ceramic money bank is a great idea for parents with kids. They can definitely design one for each of their kids to help motivate them to save for their future. Add some cute photos of them and some text, and it's done! This money bank template has so many spaces for photos. I added a lot of photos of my baby kitty on it. Although I don't have a kid of my own but I do have to save some money for my baby kitty! LOL! She does have to eat! Money doesn't fall from the tree, so Mommy has to save some money for her! Haha! :D

This photo rock is another item I picked from Shop With Template. I wanted it as a decoration in my craft room. I love the words GOOD VIBE  AND GOOD LIFE that's already written on it. It's like a prayer you know..."doa"...every time I see it, I think of good things. And that's one of the reasons why I chose that TO DO list image I found on Google Images. It's perfect for me. I need to be reminded of that every day. It makes me feel good. I love the shape of the photo rock too! Heart shape is the best!! LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! :)

All in all, I have to say that I am super happy with the personalised items I received today. Everything is perfect! From the service to the products....I love them all. Printcious's customer service is really tip top! The packaging is super awesome, I  never have to worry about fragile items if I plan to order more in future because they packed them in good quality packages. Worry free!

I hope this post will help give you ideas on what to give to your loved ones on any occasions. It's easy, affordable, fast, good quality and good service. What more can anyone ask for. Just head on to Printcious and check them out! If you are like me who loves to design gifts for my loved ones or even get something for myself, then Printcious is the place to shop! ;) Your loved ones will surely appreciate the thought and effort you put in to customize that special gift for them. I just can't wait to design more gifts at PRINTCIOUS soon! :) ;)

Stitching on cards

It's been a while since I last blogged here and honestly I really miss it so much. I haven't been in the best of health lately, physically challenged and quite frankly it's draining me. Music and craft have been the things that entertained me and kept me positive all the while. Of course above all is having faith in the Almighty  that all the pain is just temporary and I will see that beautiful rainbow again. Nothing is permanent, so that's how I try to keep positive always. Learn to manage the problem and all will be well.

Those who have been following me here over the years would know how I much I love sewing on paper and how I love to use them as part of the decorations on my handmade cards. Creating simple lines with colourful embroidery threads and adding beads and sequins to them too. Well, this time around I wanted to do more.

I was inspired to do more when I stumbled upon this very creative lady named Jennifer McGuire on YouTube. She is also a crafter, and she loves to hand stitch beautiful designs on her handmade cards. Of course that's not just what she does as a crafter, obviously she makes other creative designs which I also love. I just fell in love with her work! Love them all!

So off I went to try hand stitching the way she does, unfortunately it's not as easy as how she does it because she has a cross-stitch die that is to die for!! Haha! I can't seem to find anyone selling the cross stitch dies here. There are a few different types of them for different projects. Even if they do sell them, I'll bet the dies would be very expensive to buy. But those cross-stitch die makes it so much easier to hand stitch any design I want. So since I don't have them, I had to do the hand stitching the hard way, which involves me poking the paper manually with a quilling needle like there's no tomorrow. LOL! Yes, it takes forever to finish poking those tiny holes. But once they're done, I'm all hyped up to stitch!

I could do cross stitch designs or any stitch design that I want on paper. All up to my creativity. I just love the idea of how easy it is to beautify a card simply by adding a layer of paper that is stitched. I don't even have to add any flowers or other embellishments if I didn't want to. Just add a simple sentiment and the card is done. 

I'll try to make a video explaining how I hand stitch on paper soon. It's actually very easy to do especially if you have tried cross stitch before or embroidery. The only difference is how to start sewing it and how to end the stitch on paper. I used to have problems sewing on paper, but ever since I learned the technique, I find it super easy. The only thing that's difficult is poking the holes of each design. That needs a lot of focus and concentration. One mistake will ruined the whole design.

Below are some random stitching I did for my cards! ;)

I really enjoyed stitching this purple and pink combo. So happy I could finally use this design that I got from an embroidery book I bought years ago. When I first got the book, I didn't think I would be able to do this type of stitching because it looked so hard to do. But now that I've learned a lot about how to stitch on paper, this design seemed easy for me to do compared to doing the cross-stitch ones and I could complete it a lot faster as well. I love the fact that I could embellish the card with some colourful bling bling on it too. They just gives it a more special effect to the card.

This cross-stitch design with just one white colour thread used took me the longest to complete. I hope to make another one with a different colour. But white can certainly match with a lot of embellishments or if I were to add quilling flowers and leaves to it.

I love the simplicity of this design. The easiest and the fastest to complete! Haha! It started as a cross-stitch design but I ended up joining the crosses to each other and suddenly it becomes another type of stitching altogether. I just love how it turned out. Of course colours can change according to what colour of embellishments you wish to add to the card. So, planning ahead about what you want to put on the card is always a good thing before you choose the colour of thread to stitch on paper that acts as the frame. At first I wanted to place the quilling flower on the card but I decided to use the printed cut outs I bought some time ago. The colours really matched the thread!! :) It's a simple design that I could easily do and use when I'm in a hurry.

Ok! So if you were to check out Jennifer McGuire's work, you could see that my design here was inspired by her work. She just loves to stitch design like this for her cards and her designs are just beautiful! It's like stitching samplers on the card. The colours she chooses and the thread she uses are a bit different from what I choose for my designs. Because I use what I have available. I don't want to buy new materials to create something new because I have too many craft goodies in my craft room that are begging me to use them! LOL!! Like seriously, I have too many things that I bought in the past or things that were given to me that desperately needs my attention right now. I need to use them up so that I can have more space in my craft room. And this sewing project is definitely helping me achieve my mission.

Stitching colours of the rainbow!! Oh God this one took a really really long time for me to finish sewing all those colourful threads. I just can't imagine doing this one again any time soon. I would have to be in a very very good mood and have a lot of chocolates at hand before I start doing this one again, LOL!! Too many colours and too time consuming. But I really love the final effect.

So these are just some random examples of what I've been up to since July. Now in September, I'm still experimenting with what I can do with thread and paper. I will definitely do more of this in future and I'll share it here for all to see. There's just a million things one can do with thread and paper! :)