Celebrate Your Day - Quilling card

Hello everyone!

Finally today I get to blog about this card here. I made this card last year after I received the metal cutting dies and clear stamps from In Love Arts Shop. I couldn't blog about the card until I uploaded the craft product review video on YouTube. As always I have to review all the craft products I received from In Love Arts Shop and create cards from them.  I took quite some time to get all the cards done for the review. Need to make the cards faster next time. :D

I really love the Square Lace frame dies a lot! The designs are so intricate and beautiful, that's why I chose it. I didn't know I was going to have problems cutting dies like this when I first got them. I never had intricate dies like this before so it was a new experience. A good one actually. I'm actually glad that I talked about my issues with the dies in my review video because, I gained some new knowledge about how to cut intricate dies the correct way. 

The clear stamps are great! They are of good quality and I didn't have any problems using them. I chose these clear stamps because their sentiments are combination of handwriting and block letters. A nice combo and the sentiments are not common like what usually see here in Malaysia. It's something new to me. So love them! 

Stamping and using distress ink to colour the die cut was fun. It's also something I haven't done in a long time. During this time I found out about the makeup blend brush that a lot of people are using to blend the ink on paper. I got so excited about that blending brush because it just so happened that my distress sponge are all spoiled because they are so old. Can't use them anymore. Luckily I didn't buy new ones yet. So finding out about the blending brush was a real blessing. Not only is it cheap, it worked better than the sponge.

I used the Martha Stewart butterfly craft punch to make those paper butterflies for this card. I haven't used it for my handmade cards for a long time so it was nice to use it again. I'm glad the craft punch is still working, LOL. Bought it so many years ago. I have a few more of Martha Stewart's craft punch that I haven't used in a long time. Need to check if they still function :D.

If you are interested to purchase the metal cutting dies and clear stamps, below are the links to each product I shared here. Do use my discount code FSAZLINA to get 15% off each product.

Hand Writing English Grateful Words Stamps

SKU: STZH145

http://bit.ly/2QKTD5H

Echoing Square Lace Frame Dies

SKU: DMZH409

http://bit.ly/2QRQUr0

Want to learn how to make the quilling flower on this card? Play the video tutorial below and watch how I make it. Happy quilling! :)

Square string art on a quilling birthday card

Hello everyone!

Yes! I have another birthday card to share with you today. This time around I tried the square string art technique! Been wanting to do this one for quite some time now. Many more I wish to try out soon! 

I used white glittered yarn to do the string art technique and it was easy because the square die already have holes that I can sew through it. As always I learned how to do it from YouTube tutorials. There's so many to learn from. 

I also used dies from In Love Art Shop for this card, one is the big square die which I used to do the string art with and the other one is the arrow die for the birthday sentiment. Love them both! ;)

The quilling Fan Flowers was fun to make! I haven't made any for a long time so to do it again recently brought back good memories! I do have a video tutorial on how to make them so you can check it out at my YouTube Quilling Tutorials playlist :).

I made this birthday card for my Aunt Noraini and I also made a personalised mug which I ordered from Printcious.  I love customizing mugs with Printcious. It's so easy to do it and their service is good too! :)

Had fun celebrating her birthday today, chatting and eating with good company is always a good thing and I'm happy that I get the chance to do that today with her, my Mom and her family. May God bless her always with good health and a happy life.

If you are interested to learn how to sew the Square String Art on paper too, do check out the video below. I've also attached here a video of how to make the Quilling Fan Flower, like the ones I made for the birthday card. Happy quilling and crafting!

Spirelli or Dutch String Art on card!

Hello everyone!

I'm absolutely in love with this Spirelli or Dutch String Art that I've just tried for the first time a few days ago. Been wanting to try this technique for quite some time now because it's a super easy technique that everyone can do and the result is pretty awesome when used as a decorative little embellishments on scrapbook pages and cards ! All there is to do is wind the thread, string or yarn around the circle scalloped shaped die cut or star shaped die cut. I really had fun with this one. One thing great about it is that you don't need special tools to make it other than the dies and the die cut machine. If you don't have a die cut machine, then you can trace the shapes onto card stock and cut them out with scissors. Just remember that the shapes must be symmetrical in shape with scallops or points.

I learned how to do this technique from a few crafters on YouTube. Didn't realize how easy it was to do this until I saw the tutorials. Since then I have been "SPIRELLING" non stop! LOL! At the moment I've only been doing it on the circle scallops die cuts. It is also possible to do it on oval shapes, triangles or squares. But since I only have the circle scallops die cuts, I just focus on that shape for now. 

I used this technique to embellish a birthday card that I made for my ex school teacher, Cikgu Sabariah, who is also my Mother's good friend. She was super happy about receiving the customized mug from PRINTCIOUS and the birthday card.

If I'm not mistaken, Cikgu Sabariah and my Mom have known each other since 1972! That's a pretty long time! They always celebrate their birthdays together and I am always in charge of making the birthday cards, hahaha! :D Her birthday was actually in August but they decided to celebrate it in November because she, my Mom and her other good friend wanted to celebrate all their birthdays on one selected date since her friend has not for been well for almost a year now. They are all retired school teachers :). 

If you wish to learn how to make the flower that you see on the card, do hit the play button on the video below to learn how to make your own Triangle Twist Quilling flower. And for those who are interested to purchase the Happy Birthday dies that I used for the card, then click on the link below the photo. Apply the discount code ----> FSAZLINA to get 15% off. Worldwide shipping if you have orders over more than $25.00 at their website. Ok!Thank you so much! :)

Happy Birthday Decor Edge Dies

SKU: DMZH337

http://bit.ly/2WB0qzY

Rainbow coloured birthday card

Hello everyone!

Here's another stitched card I made for the craft product review recently. The arrow tag die cut is made using the arrow tag die I received from In Love Arts Shop. I've been wanting to get me that arrow tag die for the longest time. LOL! I don't know why but I just love to use that arrow tag for my handmade cards. I used to cut my own arrow for my handmade cards but why cut it myself when I can use a die for it right?? It looks so much better too compared to the one I made on my own. There's something about cutting with dies that is just so much more professional looking I suppose. I'm sure a lot of people would agree with me on that. :D

If you guys are interested to purchase the dies I used for this card, do click on the links I placed below the photos of the dies. Apply the code : FSAZLINA when you make the purchase to get 15% off every purchase. Worldwide free shipping for orders over $25! Thank you so much! J

Arrows Tag Dies

United States

SKU: DMZH075

http://bit.ly/336lf8M

What I love most about this card would have to be the rainbow coloured background made by stitching several coloured embroidery threads on the card. I sometimes gets confused when stitching because there's too many colours involved, LOL! Great thing about stitched backgrounds is that when the stitches itself is already covering a big portion of the card, there won't be a lot to do other than adding just a simple touch to complete the design. Which in this case, I just added a flower and some leaves plus a sentiment. Done! 

I don't have a tutorial for the rainbow stitches but I do have quilling tutorials for the leaves and the flower. But not a rainbow flower though, it's the same quilling flower design but with different colours. You'll get the idea how it's done when you view the tutorial. Do check out the videos below! Thank you so much for watching :).

Blue stitched card with blue quilling flower

Hello everyone!

I am excited to share with you today this handmade card because it has both the things that I love doing which are stitching on cards and quilling! 

I made that quilling flower a while ago but never used it for any of my handmade cards until recently when I got that happy birthday die from In Love Arts.

The various stitches on the card was made earlier too when I was experimenting with different yarns and threads for stitching on paper. It's like a stitch sample kinda method. I really love the results and it's a great method to use if you have many leftover yarns or threads that you can't use anymore for big projects but they're just enough for decorating on a card. 

The paper I used for the happy birthday die cut was given to me by a friend in USA long time ago and it was perfect to use with the die. It has this thick shiny like glaze on the paper with some glitters on it too. When cut, it looks like I heat embossed it! LOL! Love it! 

Although it looks like a simple card to make but actually it's not! It super time consuming and difficult to make especially the quilling flower. I love the big quilling flower but it sucks the energy out of me. So I can't make a lot of it at any one time. You can learn how to make it from the video below.

This is an easy card to assemble once all the stitching and quilling is done. I wouldn't mind making it again with a different colour combination. :)

I gave this card to my Aunty Hamidah who is my Mother's good friend  since primary school. We're good friends with her family as well. So we go way back. She is such a darling. Love her! :)

String art on quilling card

Hello everyone!

Here's another card I showcased in my recent YouTube video where I used one of the dies that I received from In Love Arts Shop. 

I really love this banner type of die as I don't have to think much about writing the sentiment/wishes. when I want to make a handmade card. I just cut the paper with the die and paste it on the card and it's done! The die is sharp too, can cut a 230gsm paper easily with my Sizzix Big Shot die cutting machine.

I tried applying string art on my handmade card this time around, using it as a background decoration for the quilling flower. I really love the effect! Especially since I used a glitter type of yarn that makes it even more attractive. 

I definitely can make more of this card in different colours. I love making simple and fast cards in smaller sizes nowadays because it's easier for me to handle. I am just not into making overly complicated ones at the moment. Maybe when my health has improved a lot, then maybe I'll consider it.

If you would like to learn how to make this card, just let me know in the comment section below. I'm thinking of making handmade cards tutorials, so I would like to know what card designs you wish to learn from me. Let me know your thoughts!

And...if you wish to learn how to make the quilling flower on this card, just click on the video below to find out how. The flower in the video is in a different colour but I'm sure you'll  understand how it's done once you've watched it. :)

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! :)

Combining French knitting and quilling on a card #2

HB141

Hello again everyone! Looks like I've been making this knitted quilling heart card again this month. In fact I made quite a few of them for some old friends on their birthday and some extra for stock. I really enjoyed making this design because I get to play with vortex coils again and of course not forgetting the knitting!! Obsessed with knitting nowadays haha!

The reason why I'm blogging about this one is because, I've made some changes to the design especially the colours of the knitted quilling heart and also the pop up hearts. I decided to make it look more bright and cheerful to match the colours of the pop up hearts.

The knitted heart now has flourescent pink and red Lily yarn combined together. The previous one has soft pink and red Lily yarn. 

I remembered having this really cute bling bling heart stickers and I couldn't resist not sticking them on the pop up hearts. I also added those punch out hearts to add more different sizes of hearts and crowd it up a bit. The more the merrier they say. :D

I didn't put those dialogue boxes anymore with wordings in them, instead I added a Happy Birthday sticker on the knitted quilling heart. It really matches and I really love this one a lot compared to the one I made previously. It's just so cheerful to look at. Have a look at the video of the card below and you'll see what I mean. Thanks! :)