Making quilling papers with the pasta machine - REVIEW

Hello everyone!

Once again I'm experimenting with a new tool that could help me with my quilling crafting. This is something that I've been wanting to try since last year. I saw a few videos on YouTube that shared how we can make quilling papers using a pasta machine or a pasta maker, whatever you'd like to call it. When I first saw the video I was really shocked to see how easy it was for them to cut an A4 paper to make quilling papers of different sizes with the machine. It was really exciting to see the demo and I wished I could do the same.

I only have a manual paper shredder and it only cuts 3mm paper strips. If I wanted other sizes, I would have to cut the paper with a craft knife. I do wish that there is a machine that could cut other sizes as well. That's why I wanted to try the pasta machine. So I went to searched for it in town and found a cheap one that I could try at home.  I wish there was a better quality one here but I couldn't find one. In this post, I just want to do a little review on the product and share with everyone my experience using it. 

In the beginning, I did have problems using the pasta machine as it didn't cut well and the paper strips didn't come out straight. The edges were not clean cut either. So I was a little frustrated. But I didn't give up and tried to figure out what I did wrong. After numerous tries and lots of spoiled papers, I managed to cut the paper straight enough and less paper went in the dust bin. I needed to be patient went running the paper through the machine, must slowly crank the handle. I cut the A4 paper in half and run it through one piece at a time. The best weight of paper to use is 80gsm. The thickest I've tried with the machine is 120gsm.

The pasta machine that I bought could only cut 2mm and 5mm paper strips. I was happy about that especially about the 2mm strips because I've never used a paper strip that small before. I'm used to 5mm already, and I liked it too.

As you can see from the photos above, I really love making those leaves using the 2mm strips. I could also make it look like a 3D leaf and yet it doesn't look so bulky. That's what I love about it! Awesome!

I also made small little flowers with the 2mm strips. I really love them! They will compliment the bigger flowers really well. I've always wanted to have different quilling paper sizes for different purposes and now I can make it happen because of this machine.

I cut the 5mm paper strips and made bigger sized flowers with them. It's nice to make flowers with different size strips. I'm so used to using 3mm paper strips for so many years so it was nice to be able to cut a lot of 5mm strips at one go and work with them.

Another thing that you can do with the pasta machine is use it to emboss your cards or papers. But the emboss is not that deep which I actually like because sometimes there are times when I use the Big Shot machine to emboss, it pressed the embossing folders too hard and tears the paper. So the pasta machine does not tear the paper at all. Love it!

All in all, I don't regret buying this machine but I don't necessarily recommend it to anyone especially if you don't have the patience and don't like rough edges on the paper strips. The machine has helped me cut the 2mm  and 5mm strips that I wanted even though it does have some rough edges. I really don't mind it that much because I'm used to the rough edges already. I've been making quilling cards using shredded quilling papers with rough edges for 10 years now and it has not stopped me from being creative. Hope to make more interesting quilling shapes with the new quilling papers!

Do check out the video below to see how I use the pasta machine. Thank you!

2nd Craft Products Package from In Love Arts Shop!!

Hello everyone!

I'm so excited to get this second package from In Love Arts Shop! Wooohoo!!! I got this package last December to be exact. This is my second time to get free craft products from them. Feeling really blessed right now to be given the opportunity to test out their craft products and share with everyone here what I can make with them. So much fun! I had a blast with the first one, so for this second round I couldn't help myself from asking for more metal dies from them. I also asked for one set of clear stamps because I just love the wordings on them. Do check out the video above to see all the metal dies and clear stamps that I got from them and the handmade cards I made using them!

Below are all the metal dies and clear stamps that I received.

I just love the floral frame and square lace metal dies. They are so beautiful! I've never had anything like this before. They are just lovely when used as embellishments on my handmade cards. But my personal favourite is of course the Ramadhan Kareem die set which I can use to make Raya Cards or Ramadhan Kareem cards this year. 

Below are all the handmade cards that I made using all those metal dies and clear stamps.

I will elaborate more on all the cards in my next posts! I can't talk about all of them here, not enough space. So I'll have to do individual post on each one of them soon.

If you guys are interested to purchase the dies and clear stamps that I reviewed in the video, do click on the links I listed below. Apply the code : FSAZLINA when you make the purchase to get 15% discount. Worldwide free shipping for orders over $25! Thank you so much!

Lace Floral Frame Dies

SKU: DMZH386

http://bit.ly/2qws5GG

Hand Writing English Grateful Words Stamps

SKU: STZH145

http://bit.ly/2QKTD5H

Cherished Words Dies

SKU: DMZH760

http://bit.ly/2OHYG4p

Echoing Square Lace Frame Dies

SKU: DMZH409

http://bit.ly/2QRQUr0

Large Size Castle Night Dies

SKU: DMZH215

http://bit.ly/37um3a2

Art Alphabet Dies

SKU: DMZH684

http://bit.ly/2qHyxuh

Rectangular Frame Dies

SKU: DMZH625

http://bit.ly/37zQMCr

New and improved cotton T-shirt from Printcious - REVIEW

Hello everybody!

I'm back this year with another review on PRINTCIOUS! Yes, it's my second time reviewing their products and this time around it's about their new and improved 100% cotton T-shirts! I've bought their cotton T-shirts before but this time it's different because they have upgraded the quality of their cotton T-shirts! It's so different from the ones I've gotten before guys! Like seriously I'm super happy about it, and that's why I'm super excited to share with you guys about it today.

For those who have not heard of PRINTCIOUS before, this is a Malaysian company with a 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 superfast! No more hassle of driving to town to shop for gifts. Shopping online is the way of the future!

As you can see from the photos I've uploaded above, these are examples of the cotton T-shirts that I designed recently at their website. If you haven't read my previous post about PRINTCIOUS last year, I did mentioned in the post about how great it was for me to be able to design my own T-shirts there. Imagine having your own design on your own T-shirts, that's one of a kind! How cool is that?! It was pretty cool for me since I have never had that experience before. It's exciting! I'm not IT savvy but I was able to do it with their user friendly designing tools at their website. Usually, I would just buy T-shirts from the supermarket or at the mall because I'm clueless about these things but with PRINTCIOUS, they will make your dream come true! Anything is possible!

Although my designs are pretty simple on the T-shirts, but simple is my thing and I like it that way. The important thing is the experience of customizing the T-shirt designs myself and the designs are MINE! ALL MINE! LOL! :D I can wear it proudly because I made it and I customized it myself. Which I think is pretty cool! :) 

SO! I was very anxious to see what my T-shirts would look like when the package arrived at my house. I only made two designs but I ordered 2 pieces for one of the designs because I wanted to give away one of the T-shirts to one lucky quiller! This means that, one lucky quiller will have the exact same T-shirt design as me! Yay! Can't wait to do the giveaway soon! So the lucky winner will be able to enjoy a good quality T-shirt  from PRINTCIOUS  as well.

When I opened the package, I was surprised to see the prints on my T-shirts! The prints were really pretty, especially the one with the quilling mandala on it. I could see the fine details of the quilling coils clearly on the T-shirt and the colours are exactly the same as the photo I took of it with my hand phone. This is because they have a new type of printing machine which is the DTG printer that produces better printing quality for their cotton T-Shirts. It allows them to print out designs with complicated details beautifully as the ink is absorbed directly into the fabric as opposed to being laid flat on top.

I plan on adding some special touches to my one of a kind "BORN TO BE" T-shirt. Since I love sewing so much, I plan on sewing some beads and sequins on it and do a little bit of embroidery on the simple design to make it look extra awesome! Now that's really going to make the T-shirt super special! :)

All the T-shirts that I ordered are 3XL in size because I like them big and lose. Not sure about you but I don't like wearing tight T-shirts! Not suitable with our hot weather in Malaysia anyways. As you can see from the tag, the cotton T-shirt is of Premium quality! It's also a RING SPUN T-shirt which makes it more superior compared to the standard cotton T-shirts. AND it's so SOFT and COMFY! Another thing that I love about PRINTCIOUS cotton T-shirts is that they have no side seams because it's a tubular type of T-shirt. 

Another thing I wanted to share with  you guys here is that, PRINTCIOUS offers special print services for bulk orders of short sleeves cotton T-shirts. For orders of more than 30 pieces , you are eligible to get a special price for them. Below are the various types of T-shirt designs that you can order with PRINTCIOUS.

Create amazing Band T-shirts with PRINTCIOUS! This is especially cool for those who are involved in music and have their own band. You and your band can look amazing together when performing if you guys have your own specially designed T-shirts that reflect your type of music and your band.

Get custom bulk orders of Club T-shirt designs at PRINTCIOUS! When you join a club, you would definitely want something to remember by as you get together with your club members and what better product than a customized club t-shirt??! To be able to design a club T-shirt with the rest of the club members would make the time spent together even more meaningful and memorable!

Ever wanted to have your own Company/ Brand Logo printed on T-shirts? Well, now you can! In bulk order too! PRINTCIOUS offers various printing specifications on the customized cotton T-shirts. You can do DTG (Direct To Garment, Heat Transfer, Silkscreen, Embroidery and also Vinyl. Make your own merchandise for your own company and start it with PRINTCIOUS cotton T-shirts. Your employees will love it too!

Now here is something that almost everyone can relate to! Class T-shirts for class reunions or for your current class! We all go to school and for those who already left school, we would attend class reunions at least once in our lifetime right? LOL! But seriously, most of us do! And it would be great to commemorate the reunion with a class reunion T-shirt. The more you order, the cheaper the price. I know of people who does class reunions every year and it's cool to get specially designed class reunion T-shirts every time we attend the reunion. And for school kids who want something special for your current class, this is the place to design your class T-shirts with premium quality at a special rate!

Family Reunion T-shirts!!! Wow I love this! This is a great idea for family reunions or family gatherings for special events. Get your family or extended ones to contribute some ideas on the design and create something special for everyone. The premium cotton T-shirts comes in a variety of sizes, S, M, L, XL, 2XL and even 3XL! So no worries, there is a size for everybody. You can stay comfortable all day in the short sleeve premium cotton T-shirts, with its ribbed neck for ease of wearing and added comfort. It is great for outdoor activities with family. You won't have to worry about it shrinking or tear during washing too, because it's made to last!

So do check out all the links to the cotton T-shirts and PRINTCIOUS website to see all the wonderful things you can design there. I hope this post helps give you some gift ideas to get for your loved ones and even yourself for any occasion. Their service is great, easy to order, design and affordable too. For me, I'm very happy with the cotton T-shirts that I received. It's always a pleasure to do business with PRINTCIOUS. It's my go to place to get gifts for loved ones, hope it will be your go to place for you to get gifts for your loved ones too! They will surely appreciate it very much especially when they find out that you put in so much time and effort to design something beautiful for them. :)

CRAFT PRODUCT REVIEW FOR IN LOVE ARTS SHOP

Hello everyone!

I'm back today with a craft product review for In Love Arts Shop. Oh my God, can't tell you how much I love their die cuts and quilling papers! I was over the moon with them! Really enjoyed making handmade cards with them.

If you check out the video you'll be able to view some of the handmade cards I managed to come up with recently. Will blog more about them soon! 

I want to explore and experiment more using the die cuts but the quilling papers are all finished! Yikes! Wish I could get more next time from them. The quilling papers are quite thick unlike my own quilling papers. Maybe theirs is about 90 or 100 gsm. I'm just guessing since the weight of the paper is not stated on the packaging. Mine is only 80gsm.

I want to do a handmade card video tutorial, so please check out the video and let me know which handmade card you like the best from the video. I'll do a tutorial for the most requested card. It will be my fist time making a tutorial for a handmade card and I'm pretty excited about that. LOL!

Thank you for watching my video! ;)

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! :) ;)