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.

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 realized that it's not that hard after all. You just need to follow the pattern correctly and things will fall into place. :)