Some serious cardmaking

Hello again.

I thought I'd post new cards I made this weekend - I did some serious cardmaking so I could sell at work.

I recently bought a few new sets from PTI so I was trying to make good use of them and trying to get back to using some of the old sets that had been neglected for too long. People suggested we should have more sympathy cards (apparently quite a few people ask the hospital reception if they have one!) so I made a few of those.

There are too many so I won't list all the supplies for each, but as always, feel free to ask if you are curious!

Something simple and neutral.

It started off with an idea that turned out rather nicer than anticipated!

One of my favourite cards from the weekend. I just love this particular die cut.

Trying to use that old time favourite - Scattered Showers set.

Another favourite card from this weekend. Simple and clean.

Old style card that is quick and easy to make.

I found this Watercolor Wonder set incredibly difficult to use... I have struggled to put it to use since I bought it. It does go nicely with the Wet Paint set however.

Another favourite - got back to using the Cupcake Collection set and this time, used it as a background. I think I'll make more of these later.

Summery colours for our summer season in New Zealand!

I hope you liked the cards. There are lots of them and I suspect they will be the last few for a while as I start night shift later this week which means I go braindead and motivation-less for a week!

Have a fab week!

Super cute baby cards

Hi everyone!

It has been a long time. Several things have happened and I have moved cities, and have gone back to cardmaking as I've started to sell some again at work. It is a good motivation for getting back into cards as my other hobbies (photography, crochet) were starting to compete with it!

I thought I should share the baby cards I made the other week that I am absolutely in love with.

I used a smudging tool against a cloud die cut as a mask. It has come out better than I had even imagined and the Mama Elephant set is just perfect for baby cards :)

Hoping to share more cards with you all soon!

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

STAMPS: [Mama Elephant] Up and Away; [Papertrey Ink] Night, Night, Moon

INK: [Papertrey Ink] Summer Sunrise, Orange Zest, Lemon Tart, Berry Sorbet, Hibiscus Burst, Melon Berry; [VersaFine] Onyx Black; [Adirondack] Pitch Black

PAPER: [Papertrey Ink] Soft Stone, Stamper's Select White

OTHER: [Mama Elephant] Up and Away - Creative Cuts, Landscape Trio - Creative Cuts; [Tim Holtz] Blending tool; [Copic] Various colours; [Mister Huey] Calico Shine

Unconventional

So it has been a long long time since I even thought about this blog.

I managed to get my friend into stamping last year and now she is encouraging me to get started on Christmas cards so we had our little "Crafternoon" - as I said to her today, it is 10% gossipping, 10% crafting and 80% staring at your piece of paper trying to figure out what to do!

Here are couple of unconventional Christmas cards from this year's collection.

As my stamping skills get older, I am finding I get more and more lazy to the point that I keep going back to remaking old cards or casing someone else's from Google Images.

Pretty unconventional but I tried to make something that might be possibly more appealing to the Asian counterparts who celebrate New Years more than Christmas.

 

I eventually bought the City Scene set and they are surprisingly hard to use. I find that I struggle to come up with new ways to use the set. I'm sure I'll eventually find new ways.

Anyway, a quick post this time. I had been very busy earlier this year with a postgrad diploma and now I have bought myself a proper dSLR (about time!) and my time is being split between various hobbies.

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

{Oriental New Years}

STAMPS: [Mama Elephant] Pandemonium; [Papertrey Ink] Stocking Prints (sorry, borrowed friend's sets and not sure where the New Years bit came from).

INK: [Papertrey Ink] Pure Poppy, Snow White; [Memento] Tuxedo Black 

PAPER: [Papertrey Ink] Pure Poppy, Smokey Shadow, Stamper's Select White

OTHER: [Mama Elephant] Pandemonium Dies; [Papertrey Ink] Book Print Impression Plate

{Santa Claus is Coming to Town}

STAMPS: [Papertrey Ink] City Scene, City Scene Christmas Sentiments

INK: [Papertrey Ink] Berry Sorbet, Hibiscus Burst, Simply Chartreuse, New Leaf, Summer Sunrise, Classic Craft, Dark Chocolate; [Stampin' Up!] Enchanted Evening, Old Olive, Marina Mist, Real Red; [VersaFine] Onyx Black

PAPER: [Papertrey Ink] Stamper's Select White, Smokey Shadow

OTHER: [Papertrey Ink] City Scene Die Collection

PTI 7th Anniversary Journaling Card

Hello everyone!

Yes, I am still alive. Not quite dead, though I haven't blogged anything or made much in over a year.

Things have been rather busy on this side of the world (well, in my little world anyway). A big news on my life would be that I bought a house!!! Long story, but it somehow happened. The house is still in development and settlement hasn't occurred so it technically isn't mine yet. They are well overdue but I think they might be another 2 months or so away.  Exciting but also daunting that I will sooner or later have a mortgage - and I just thought I'd be a bit more free now that I'd paid off the Student Loan too!

Work has been keeping me busy and I've sort of lost a bit of inspiration and motivation to make cards the last little while.

However, I did finally get myself Project Life. I had been meaning to for a long time but it is a rather expensive little thing and I thought I'd bide my time. Having a well paying job certainly helps, but being on night shift for the first time didn't help my self control and I finally caved in around 5am at work. Haha. Not to mention that was followed by clothes shopping on ASOS two weeks later on another set of night shift. Lol.

Anyway, I have been keeping up with PTI releases, but just have been quiet. I see and am thrilled that PTI is releasing things to go with pocket scrapbooking trend. Great (and bad for my wallet) because big 12x12 pages scare me. Anyway, I had done  my own first page with lots of difficulty a couple of weeks ago, so I may as well share and get in a chance to win something ;)

So yes, I cheated. I got the journaling cards from the core kit and added my little touch.

 This is my under-used SU! Fox & Friends set. I feel like I've finally put it to good use. Actually looking at this now, I feel that it would also make good background for kids' birthday cards.

And voila! This is my first ever pocket scrapbooking page. It took an awful lot of time and thought before I arrived at this. It appears that I struggle with pocket scrapbooking almost as much as the old-fashioned 12x12 page scrapbooking.

Anyway, things are going to be ridiculously busy for me the next few months now that I've started a postgraduate diploma (only till June!). Perhaps I will go back into that old habit of getting sidetracked and crafting the week before exams ;)

Thanks for coming by!

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

{3 Monkeys Journaling Card}

PAPER: [Project Life] Midnight Core Kit, [Papertrey Ink] Summer Sunrise, Orange Zest

OTHER: [Papertrey Ink] By the Numbers die collection, Headline Alphabet die collection

{Fox & Friends Journaling Card}

STAMPS: [Stampin' Up!] Fox & Friends

INK: [Papertrey Ink] Dark Chocolate, Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise, New Leaf, Simply Chartreuse

PAPER: [Project Life] Midnight Core Kit

Thank you card bonanza

Hi everyone.

Hope you have all been keeping well. Winter is coming in New Zealand and today it just happened to pour down with rain.

Anyway, I've been sick home most of the week with laryngitis. I lost my voice completely so it was only reasonable that I had to stay at home seeing as I can't talk to patients at work! However, I did feel really bad all week leaving my colleague to cross-cover for a 2-person job! I will have to make up for it next week (our last week too!) and let him go home early.

One of my good friends always seems to be needing thank you cards and he asked for a few the other day. So I dredged out whatever motivation I had and made some.

In honesty, I am terrible at making thank you cards, especially when they are going to be given to guys! Masculine cards are my weakness and I have a horrendous time designing them. So naturally I ended up Googling a lot of images and got lazy in the end. People seem to like my crappy cards too (yeah, the ones I really don't like). So some of these may look similar to cards you have seen around the net.

I do apologise in advance not being able to specify any inspirational sources as I didn't take note of any!

This one is definitely a case... I just can't remember where I got the original idea from! Sorry!

 

Also got inspiration of this from another blog... and as always I cannot remember the link!

So yes, lots of thank you cards...

But anyway, Angela from work is leaving for Canada to do her fellowship. It seems that everyone is leaving ENT at the end of this month. I change over to General Medicine at the end of this week :'( and our fellow is also leaving soon. Seems to be a time of change.

Anyway, I got asked to make a card for Angela. Our outpatients charge nurse suggested I should have "will work for shoes" on the card, because she is into her shoes ;)

I probably did go overboard with stars, but I have been having lots of fun with the Star Gazer set so much I could not resist! Wait till you see some of my other creations (except I'm saving them up for submissions!).

 I decided we needed to have Bon Voyage at least somewhere in the card too... so it went inside the card.

 Anyway, thank you for coming by!

I am currently feeling incredibly lazy and will not list all the supplies & tools but you are all welcome to email me and ask. All stamp sets and dies were from Papertrey Ink (except the Labels 1 die from Spellbinders).

Hope you all have a nice day!

Belated May the 4th be with you...

So my weekend was a little busy, but all good because I managed to have a "Craftanoon" with some friends. I still don't have a single friend nearby who stamps as seriously as I do (that also happen to be in my age group!). However, it turns out my friends are into a bit of crafts and already had their initial "Craftanoon" making candles, and wanted something new. Therefore, with Mothers' Day looming ahead this weekend, we proposed to hold a stamping session.

I do admit, I managed to drag most of my posessions and overwhelmed the crowd. They did think it was all very cool though!

It was a little difficult to get much done as I spent most of the afternoon showing how to stamp and explaining what on earth that green machine called Cuttlebug was for.

Anyway, I did manage to make a Mothers' Day card. I was determined to use my new sets that had arrived last week. Hello, Foxy was out of question since I ripped the stamp into two after 2nd use :(

But anyway, here it is...

I also made a card before my Hello, Foxy stamp split into two. I had to make a thank you card to someone at the hospital who kindly donated an old radio for my Girl Guides to pull apart one night! :)

Hope you liked the cards. I am a little tied up sorting out raffle tickets for Crohn's and Colitis Group, so will hold off on listing all my supplies. If anyone wants to know where I got things from, it's all from Papertrey Ink!

See you laters!

Birthday cards

Long time no see! This seems to be my usual first line now!

I've been very busy over the last 3 weeks with barely any time to myself. Fortunately, I had cause to make some cards yesterday (namely brother's birthday!), so here they are!

I just had this random thought I should tie a dog to balloons (!!!). It worked rather well! And I am loving my new bookprints impression plate. It is awesome for just any card.

And I am still using my Copics and haven't quite lost my touch yet.

Then I also had to make a card for a little girl named India so that she's vaguely have it in time for her birthday in May all the way out in the Cook Islands!

 I admit, I got a little lazy and this is pretty much the same card I made a year ago... just in pink. Old tricks are your best friend sometimes.

Anyway, hope you liked them. I might make more of the first card because it is just too cute.

I have made a new stamp order (because PTI just had to come up with the Star Gazer series... I have this thing for Astronomy/Constellations/Stars). So hopefully I'll make a few more in the next few weeks.

Otherwise, my life is going alright. Has been busy at the hospital last week seeing as I worked the entire weekend too. But I am enjoying it a lot (ENT rocks) :D

Thanks for popping by. Hope you all have an amazing day.

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

{Celebrate Today - Balloon Puppy}

STAMP: [PTI] Cupcake Collections; [My Cute Stamps] Puppy Pals, Space Ships & Robots

INK: [Adirondack] Pitch Black; [VersaFine] Onyx Black; [SU!] Real Red
PAPER: [PTI] Stamper's Select White, Pure Poppy

 OTHER: [Copic] Sketch Markers; [We R Memory Keepers] Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper (aqua); [PTI] Book Print impression plate

{Celebrate - Zoo}

STAMP: [My Cute Stamps] Puppy Pals, Circus Animals, Cats Meow; [PTI] Fillable Frames #3, Fillable Frames #5

INK: [SU!] Melon Mambo; [VersaFine] Onyx Black
PAPER: [PTI] Raspberry Fizz, Stamper's Select WhiteOTHER: [PTI] Grosgrain ribbon (Raspberry Fizz), Fillable Frames #3 die, Book Print impression plate; [We R Memory Keepers] Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper (aqua); foam tape;

Whoops!

Hello everyone! Sorry about having been MIA for some time now!

I had totally forgotten to update my blog and I just came to transfer photos from my camera, and it turns out there are a few cards I have been forgetting to share!

It appears that I have not updated this blog at all this year! Well... it is rather late, but Happy New Year! Hahahaha.

Well, a lot has happened in the last 3 or so months. I survived my first surgical run as a doctor with flying colours in my assessments :)

I finally had my jaw surgery to correct my underbite and I'm happy to say that it all went very well - so well that I had no post-op pain at all! It has been just over 4 weeks now and I am progressing well. Still have to stick to soft foods, but doing better each week. Apparently I now look quite different. My friends are having a hard time getting used to the "new me" lol

And as for crafting, I haven't had the chance to do too much. But photos suggest I have done more than I had thought. There are actually more cards, but I had to give them away so quickly that I had forgotten to take photos!

Anyway, hope these make up for my time away from action!

This is a card I made for a boy I know for his birthday. I always struggle to make cards for guys, but kids are a little easier. I hear he did love the card :)

 This was for my friends' wedding as I could not make it due to last minute roster changes :'( It's a very simple card.

Then another simple birthday card for a baking friend... she bakes at least 3 times a week but doesn't cook all that much!

A more summery card, to whom it was for, I do not remember...

My friend brought back Party Poppers set I bought back in December back from New York in February just after my surgery. I just got to play with it the other day!

And the cards turned out so well I had to make more but in different colours!

 I am keeping things rather short today, but hope you liked the cards.

I don't think I can sit down and write all the tools and stamps I used today, but if anyone is curious as to what I've used, don't hesitate to email me (see by my photo).

 Thanks for coming by!

Last minute X-mas stuff...

Hello again everyone!

2012 is drawing to a close very soon and I figured I'd better post the Christmas productions before the year ends.

Sorry it is of not much help to those who needed these ideas a couple of weeks earlier!

Just a simple tag and a card. The wine tag uses the same technique as in the previous post with embossed image and blended inking in the background!

A close up image...

And a very simple Christmas card using Mat Stacks negative die cuts and kraft inked background images. I tried with a snowflake image as well and looked even better!

Anyway, a very quick post today.

Happy New Year everyone! :)

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

{Snowman Wine Tag}

STAMP: [PTI] Background Basics: Sheet Music, Winter Snow Globe

INK: [Adirondack] Pitch Black; [VersaFine] Onyx Black; [Versamark] Watermark ink pad

PAPER: [PTI] Stamper's Select White

OTHER: [PTI] Grosgrain ribbon (Hawaiian Shores), Winter Snow Globe die collection, Tag Sales #5; [SU!] Embossing Powder (white); foam tape; [Copic] Sketch Markers (Y35, 0, T1)

{Peace, Love & Joy}

STAMP: [PTI] Stocking Prints, Happiest of Holidays

INK: [PTI] Kraft, Dark Chocolate

PAPER: [PTI] Kraft

OTHER: [PTI] Mat Stack #5 die; foam tape

Merry Christmas!

Hello everyone! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

It has been far too long since my last post! My apologies for lack of updates. Life is busier than expected now that I've started being a real adult (aka started working!).

I did manage to whip out a few cards every now and then.

But tomorrow is Christmas in NZ (only 2 hrs to go!) and it just so happens to be my grandmother's birthday too. So I had to do the annual honours of making her birthday card.

I decided that I had to move away from the whole Christmas theme because I think I've done it before and it's her birthday we are celebrating, not somebody else's! ;)

So... I had this light bulb moment with this card using white base and white embossing powder for background and smudging several colours across with the Tim Holtz blending tool. It worked surprisingly well, especially with that scrap vellum I had lying around! All in all I am very pleased with the result :)

Hope you all have a fabulous Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Enjoy the silly season.

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

STAMP: [PTI] Friends 'Til the End, Over Under Easy

INK: [PTI] Summer Sunrise, Orange Zest, Berry Sorbet; [Versamark] Watermark Ink Pad
PAPER: [PTI] Stamper's Select White; Vellum
OTHER: [SU!] Heat Embossing Powder (white); [Filigree] Heat Embossing Powder (black); [Tim Holtz] Inkssentials Blending Tool

Sorry for lack of update

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all well!

Apologies for lack of update these days. Work has been chewing through my life then weekends got taken up by camp and graduation (yes! graduated at last!). And there was a reason why doctors get paid well lol

Anyway I hope to get more crafty when time allows. Sorry things haven't been particularly exciting on my blog lately!

Hope all the Christmas preps are going well!

Euna

Assorted Colours Christmas Cards

Hi everyone!

Hope you are all getting cracking with the annual Christmas card-making madness! I am beginning to get a little tired trying to make new things all the time so I decided to do a set of Christmas card in assorted colours!

It's a reasonably simple card and can easily be mass-produced. It certainly is not a traditional sort of card, but it works for people down South where Christmas sits in the middle of summer.

Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 1 goes perfectly with the new Papertrey Ink Over Under Easy set and make a nice focal point. I just added a bit of bow to the mat and also stamped it with coordinating inks in the background.

This could easily be sold as a set or gifted as one. The Over Under Easy set has lots of other sentiments so could easily be used for other occasions too!

Anyway, hope you liked these. Will try and post more cards later.

PS - I have officially become a doctor! Eek! First day at work tomorrow!!!

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

STAMP: [PTI] Over Under Easy: Holiday Additions, Background Basics: Sheet Music

INK: [PTI] Hawaiian Shores, New Leaf, Royal Velvet, Summer Sunrise; [SU!] Melon Mambo; [VersaFine] Onyx Black

PAPER: [PTI] Stampers' Select White, Hawaiian Shores, New Leaf, Royal Velvet, Raspberry Fizz, Summer Sunrise

OTHER: [PTI] grosgrain ribbon (Lemon Tart, New Leaf), satin ribbon (Aqua Mist, Royal Velvet), saddlestitch ribbon (Raspberry Fizz); [Spellbinders] Nestabilities: Labels 1; foam tape

Moved in!

Hi everyone!

Hope you all had a fab weekend. I've spent the last weekend moving houses and now I can officially say I've moved out of home.

Things have settled down in my new place (with one other flatmate) and I can now proudly say that I have a giant desk the size of a single bed for all my crafting goodies. It is a nice change having all those cardstock sitting on the table.

Remind me to show you all a photo later sometime...

Anyway, I have one card to share today (because I'm savouring the others for later). I was just told by a friend yesterday that she was getting married in January. She hadn't even told me she was engaged! Given that I have known both bride and the groom since beginning of high school, going back 11 years, I thought I'd better make them a special card. Especially knowing that they did a simple email wedding invites (if they had told me sooner, I could have made handmade ones!!!).

Note the new card background. No longer on my bed! Well, I might still if I get sick of moving downstairs for photos. Haha.

This card is hot off the press. And I thought I'd stick with the hexagons since I'm having so much fun with it. I used the sentiments from Love & Marriage set and heat embossed it in gold. Butterfly die cut was smudged with 3 different inks using the Tim Holtz Blending Tool and then sprayed with a bit of mist.

So that's it from me. Hope you all liked the card. Now I'd better get back into Christmas cards!

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

STAMP: [PTI] Happy Hexagons, Love & Marriage
INK: [PTI] Berry Sorbet, Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise; [Versamark] Watermark ink pad
PAPER: [PTI] Rustic Cream, Stamper's Select White

OTHER: [PTI] Cover Plate: Hexagons, Half & Half die collection, Beautiful Butterflies die collection; [Tim Holtz] Blending Tool; [Filigree] embossing powder (gold); foam tape

Happy Hexagons are here!

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd better post today before things get too hectic. I have an exam tomorrow (and I am going to flunk it!) and then moving houses this weekend so won't have much time to post I suspect.

My PTI order finally arrived yesterday and unfortunately I couldn't get my hands off it! I had been eyeing the hexagon and harlequin cover plates for some time now and had to nab them when they were both in stock.

They were definitely fun to play with but require a fair bit of patience as it does take time to stamp and assemble them! But the results are rather striking even when you didn't think through colours. I am aware that Nichole Heady has some formulas or layout to make them look nice with the number of pieces needed for each colour. However, being me, I couldn't be bothered and I just went with random placements which still worked perfectly fine.

So I made two cards yesterday instead of doing some studies (seeing as it won't affect whether I graduate or not, and you all know the temptation when you get your hands on somethine new after 6 months of nothing!).

Now, the hexagons or the colours have nothing to do with Christmas, but I figured I may as well use the new Christmas stamp sets too. Whoever receives these can be baffled at my designs ;)

I used some Royal Velvet here because it's not a colour I use very often and it went with the new ink I got (Royal Velvet, Smokey Shadow and Winter Wisteria).

Next up is a bit more cheery and more fitted to our New Zealand summer Christmas. Still doesn't look anything like a Christmas card, but hey, it's handmade! ;)

 So there it is from me. I'd better do some work just to make myself feel better. Why I agreed to take part in the exam I do not know (since I did have a choice whether to sit it or not!!!). Anyway, wish me luck in moving around all my junk to the new house and I am very much looking forward to a new corner desk which will now be set up primarily for crafting purposes (seeing as I won't be getting much homework to do once work starts!).

Thanks for coming around :)

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

{Sending Best Wishes for a Happy Holiday}

STAMP: [PTI] Happy Hexagons, Over Under Easy: Holiday Additions

INK: [PTI] Royal Velvet, Smokey Shadow, Simply Chartreuse, New Leaf, Winter Wisteria, Autumn Rose

PAPER: [PTI] Royal Velvet, Rustic Cream

OTHER: [PTI] Mat Stack 4 die, satin ribbon (Royal Velvet), Cover Plate: Hexagon die; foam tape

{Wishing You a Cozy Holiday Season}

STAMP: [PTI] Happy Hexagons, Happiest of Holidays

INK: [PTI] Berry Sorbet, Dark Chocolate, Summer Sunrise, New Leaf, Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores; [SU!] Daffodil Delight

PAPER: [PTI] Summer Sunrise, Stamper's Select Delight, Vintage Cream

OTHER: [PTI] Cover Plate: Hexagon die, Tag Sales 5 die

Merry Christmas Santa Claus

Just a quick post today (I'm sure I've said this numerous times before too), and I am definitely running out of titles to use for my posts as the number of holiday cards increase. 

I made a card last night using the Tremendous Treats: Christmas stamp set. I have to admit I really struggle to use this set. When I first got the Tiny Treats set, I knew I wanted images to be bigger, but after the Tremendous Treats was release, I just could not figure out how to use them.

Well, as with any crafter, Google Image is your best friend ;) I quickly Googled for some ideas and I give all credits of designing this card to Shelly, because I practically cased her card out of desperation!

The design is more or less the same, but I can't say "Warm Wishes" in New Zealand seeing as it's the middle of Summer here in December. So a quick change-over to my favourite Santa Claus did the trick.

I have to admit that the PTI Kraft ink works and looks so much better on Kraft cardstock. Versamark used to leave very very subtle impressions unless you heat embossed it, but the Kraft ink is just perfect for the background imaging as it is not too bold or subtle.

Anyway, that's it from me today. Thanks for coming around!

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

STAMP: [PTI] Tremendous Treats: Christmas, Tiny Tags II

INK: [PTI] Dark Chocolate, Kraft, Vintage Touch: Tea Dye Duo; [Adirondack] Pitch Black

PAPER: [PTI] Rustic Cream, Kraft, Pure Poppy

OTHER: [PTI] Tiny Tags die collection; [Spellbinder] Nestabilities Labels 1 die collection; [Copic] Sketch Markers (T1, E00, E21, E13, R24, R29, R59, Y32, Y35, Y38); baker's twine (red)