I love you B...

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I got an order to make a card in a box design from a customer who wanted me to make it for her BF. I declined the order in the beginning because I have stopped taking customized handmade cards for a while due to lack of time in my schedule to make cards like that these days. I just want to concentrate on ready stock cards for a while. It's is also because ready stock cards are less stressful to make hehehe!

Anyways, since she agreed to give me the freedom to do it anyway I like it, I then decided to give it a try since she only wanted a simple design for her BF as both of them love simple designs....kinda sounds like me coz I love simple designs too hehehe!

I got some details from her......the wordings....his favourite colour and his less favourite....the dos and the don'ts.....and off I went to complete the card. I thought it would take a long time to make, but, the idea came quite quickly for this one, I just had to carry on with it until it's done. Somehow the red box reminded me of the pop corn box we get at the cinema and that gave me the idea to do the stripes. I have done stripes for quite a while! It used to be my favourite thing to do whenever I make cards. It was like my trademark. So it was fun to do it again for this design! Love it!

As I was thinking of ideas of how to write the wordings on the card. The idea came to me.....I realised I had those colourful glitters set and glue pen from Kreaxions which I bought so long ago. I immediate went to get them from my craft box and started experimenting on it. It took me some time to figure out how to use it....it can be a bit tricky!!! If not careful, the whole thing is ruined! Gotta have a steady hand to write with the glue pen....and gotta write it fast too before the glue dries up otherwise I won't be able to sprinkle the glitters on it....and it might not stick well if it is already dried up. After a few tries, I finally got it!! And I'm loving it! I should experiment more on this new technique next time.

I'm so glad that my customer loved the card so much, she just can't wait to show it to her BF soon. I hope he loves it too!! Have a look at the card in a box at the video below. See how it opens up and pops up all those hearts ;). 

My first Card in a box!

I was taking some time off from work the other day, because I've been working like crazy since January with not much time to rest and I started browsing for new type of cards to make and I suddenly thought of making a card in a box. Been dying to make one ever since I saw them on Pinterest some time ago.

Sometimes I just need some other diversions to keep the mood for cardmaking going and keep on going. Because I'm the type who gets bored easily. Since I've been making a lot of swing cards already, so it was high time I change things a bit to give me some excitement.

From the time I saw the designs of the card in a box in Pinterest, I always thought that it was difficult to make. I figured it was the most complicated card I've ever seen. And it never occurred to me that we can actually fold it flat and insert it in an envelope. But when I saw the video tutorial on YouTube, I was blown away by the trick! What a fancy trick it was! That was what got me into this so instantly. I just had to make one the minute I saw the video. :)

I bought some fancy birthday 3D Pop up stickers recently and thought of using them for my first card in a box experiment. The pattern paper were given to me by a good friend of mine, Sandi Staley. Gosh I have loads of scrap pattern papers from her to use up for my card experiments! hehehe! ^.^

 Compared to other types of cards, this particular one involves decorating on almost all parts of the card. So it's quite a lot of paper to paste here and there...a lot of decoration to do to make it attractive. And since it will have a 3D look once opened, you gotta think of how it will look 360 degrees...all angles. The challenge makes me more driven to complete the card.

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Do check out the video I took of the card so you can see how it transforms from a flat card to a box with pop ups in the center! That would perhaps get you excited to create your own first card in a box soon! ;)

Congratulations on your wedding

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I got butterflies in my stomach and somehow it got transferred on to the card ;). I rarely put butterflies on my cards but for this one it just seems so suitable and I couldn't help but adding them along side the focal point of the card which is the heart shape paper doily that I got from WholePort. 

I've been wanting to do this type of swing card for the longest time and I'm super excited about being able to get it done in the end. It's a see-through type of swing card! hehe! Peekaboo! :D

I used the Yellow quilling paper strips from WholePort to make the quilled heart. I'm getting used to using the 5mm quilling strips....it's not that bad after all. But of course the 3mm type is my personal favourite.

Ok! Sewing on paper like this is therapy for me lately. I just love doing this technique. Not sure if I'll ever get bored doing it one day though. For now it's just bliss!! Even better when using the embroidery thread :).

I also love the lace I used to decorate on the front part of the card. I got that one from WholePort too. I'm just using up all the products I got from them. Fun playing with all the goodies. ;)

New Baby Girl swing card

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A combination of the old and new indeed. Because for this card, it has at the front part of the card, a newborn baby girl design that I did long time ago. The only difference is the material used for making it. In the previous design, I made it using foam sheets but for this one, I used felt. You can see below how I sew the eyes with a dark brown thread for the little baby.

The card has a few 3D fancy stickers on it which is in my opinion is so cute! I got them at Tesco. They are not that expensive and the design is lovely. I couldn't help myself from buying it. I do have a similar design for new baby boy too. So I will definitely use them soon for another new baby card.

 I love the off white floral lace trim from WholePort.....it looks really cute combined with the colourful pastel buttons. I didn't use a lot of items from WholePort for this card, just the lace and the embroidery thread for sewing the felt and paper. I just love using the embroidery thread. The colours are so pretty and it has a shine to it that makes it looks so fancy. Easy to sew on paper too. :)

Overall I had fun making this one. With a candy theme colour combination, it makes the card look sweet and warm. The Dymo embossing label maker was a fun gadget to use too for making the wordings for the card. I kinda enjoy using it nowadays. I guess I need to get more colours too as I only have black and red colour labels at the moment. ^.^

Do check out the video below of the card in motion.....I love the sounds of the birds in the background chirping away so happily in the garden. I guess they were excited to see the card too hhihihiihihi!! ;D

Selamat Pengantin Baru

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I was requested to make this wedding card and I couldn't be happier about it because it's a little different from what I've done before. Every time I create a new card, I try to either implement something that I've tried before and make it better or I use a new technique or material.

For this card, it's a combination of all that and I'm pretty happy with the outcome. It's been a while since I last made those quilled love birds too. Every time I make them, they'll turn out a little different because it's handmade. So it's bound to have a character of it's own. First time ever to have them on a swing card too! Weeehooo!!

This is my first time trying out one of the packs of quilling paper that I got from WholePort. It's smooth on the sides and it's a bit wide, which is about 5mm in width and the length is about 54cm. It's called the Rose Red Quilling paper.  This is my first time using a 5mm quilling paper too. Usually I just use the shredded A4 paper for my quilling projects. And the width is usually about 3.5mm.

It's the first time for me to quill using my new beads slotted quilling tool too on my new card. It may not be the best quilling tool to use since it's handmade, but it does function as a quilling tool and I was able to make those quilling decorations on the card using it. So I'm quite satisfied with it so far:).

I managed to use a few of the brass charms that I got from WholePort too. The latest one I got is that love pendant. It's really pretty....love how it looks on the card. You can check out the pendants at the links here:

1. Believe in love charm
2. Live your dream charm
3. Love pendant

I gotta say that making swing cards nowadays is a must for me. I just love them so much. I do miss making pop up cards though. It's something I seriously have to think about doing in the next few months. I do hope that I'll have time to do all that I wish and miss so dearly.

Do check out my video here.....I took a video of the card so that you can view how the card swings in motion. ;)

Rainbow beads slotted quilling tool

I'm getting the hang of making these slotted quilling tools now.....so far, it's been quite thrilling :). Especially the part of arranging the different colours of beads inside the plastic tube. This one was a request from a customer of mine. She showed me the different colours of beads that she would love for her quilling tool and I was very happy to do it for her.

Hope to make more in future with other colour combinations. ;)

Do check out the video below to view how to use this slotted quilling tool :)

My own DIY slotted quilling tool

Just a few days ago I was thinking of making my own slotted quilling tools. At first it was just for fun....(as if I didn't have enough quilling tools in my collection already! hehehehehe).....yes I have plenty of different designs of slotted quilling tools but the curiosity to find out how to make a slotted quilling tool just wouldn't go away . I made some using some old pens and a needle like the photo you see below.

But then, the obsession to make better ones came. Of course the minute that thought came to mind, I had to think of ways of doing it and I came up with the design that you see at the first two photos above. As you can see, the handle of the tool is plastic and it is filled with gold and silver glitters. I just love the effect! 

I even made some using beads like the ones below. I simply had fun making them! I used all the beads that I have in my collection. I haven't been using them for a long time and I thought it would be cool to try it out for the slotted quilling tool.

So what do you think? ;)

Green theme hand-bound book

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Making hand-bound books was never something that I consider easy to do. It takes a lot of effort and patience. Those who have tried it would be able to relate to what I'm saying. The same goes to this book I made recently. I had to make the same book twice before I got it right.

It's an A5 size hand-bound book, with Kettle stitch binding. Kettle stitch binding are cool...I love how they end up looking like ribbon bows or some say butterflies. I used 165gsm acid free paper for this sketch book and there are about 50 plus pages inside the book. It comes with an attached beaded bookbook too....I love arranging the beads to the bookmark. Reminded me of the beaded bookmarks that I used to make so long ago.

Just sewing the pages together is just half the story.....decorating the cover is another. But once it's all done, there is this kind of satisfaction that's so hard to explain. Furthermore, I find myself so attached to the book, I somehow refuse to let it go. But of course eventually I have to...huhuhu.....

The person who ordered this book is the same person who ordered the green theme floral swing card. That explains why the book has a combination of green colours as well. I guess my customer just love that colour so much.

Once the pattern paper for the book cover was chosen, I had a difficult time deciding on how to decorate the book. My customer wanted me to put some quilled roses on it. But putting just 3 pieces of them like she requested on the cover would look so bare. So I put more and I was happy with the results.

This is the first time I'm using a few die-cut Flourish design on the cover in this arrangement. I only wanted to put 2 in the beginning....but ended up putting 4 of them and arranging them to look like a frame. I had fun making those die-cut quilled roses again. If you would like to learn how to make them, you can check out the video below: