Thanks - Stephanie's First ever Card Challenge

Continuing the last post, I am posting these two cards for Stephanie.  She made them during our Sunday paper-crafting session (Sunday being a work day here in Dubai and therefore we are usually free after dropping our kids off school) and I suggested she put them on my blog since she doesn't have one.

So this is Stephanie's first ever card challenge.

FUSION {Red, White & Blue}

And she did an amazing job! Look!

Well done, Steph!

Thank You Card with Heart, Wings, Crown and Little Quirkiness (Part 1)

So it is the end of school term, the beginning of summer break and sleep-ins, the moment when mum's coffee/happy hours come to a halt, and the time not knowing where to take the bored kids to exhaust their inexhaustible energy...(which is impossible)

Still, some are happy, perhaps most happy of all are the faculty who finally do not have to handle our brats for a good period of time.  Come to think of it, during the whole term the teachers teach our little 4 year-olds common sense & knowledge, guiding them step-by-step to be good girls and boys, making sure they enjoy their school hours.  It's one of the hardest jobs in the world, and we all should be thankful to the teachers and their hard work.

Therefore last week, we parents decided to give the two teachers a present that everyone can chip in a little as well as Thank You cards that I volunteered to make. Very happy that my skill can be part of the token. :-)

This time no distressing at all.  I should stitch around the wood grain panel, but haven't even started reading the manual of my brand-new sewing machine yet.

Love the details on the blue embossed strip and the twine.

The gloss (clear embossing) on the crown could be done better with glossy accent. Need to buy it.

Love the golden music notes! 

Best Wishes - Honey Chai

Sylwia is a school mum I met in Dubai.  Her daughter, Maya, and my Ashley go to the same class at school. In this city where expats constitute 80 % of the population, you expect to meet people from around the world. Sylwia is from Poland, and I'm from Taiwan, plus we both have/had to go through the formidable Dubai road test to get our driver's licenses, hence it's quite natural that we become good friends, along with other mums.


Yesterday was Sylwia's birthday party, and therefore I made a simple but elegant card for her.  I'm happy with the way it looks and that it meets the criteria of the Fusion Card Challenge#:
FUSION {Homemade Flowers, Bright Colours & array of Possibilities!

And here's my card :-)

I intend to stamp the sentiments the way they are so it looks more interesting. Also used foam tape to make the flowers look more dimensional. 

 Gotta love the shine on the flowers!

The papers I used are from Kaisercraft: Honey Chai collection.  I'm not all that happy with the quality of the paper because it  doesn't trim smoothly but other than that it is a great paper pad that comes with laminated papers, various pre-cut borders and embellishments.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Stephanie's house after dropping A off school.  We're going to make mini albums!  Can't wait.

You Are Amazing! CAS Card with Chevron Washi Tape, Stamping and Liquid Pearls

So I haven't done any challenge for a month now.  I've been busy with my friend, Amanda's troublesome maid who stayed at my place for three weeks comfortably while Amanda was back in Japan to see her husband.  She brought me troubles while she was here, and worst of all, she took off after Amanda's back in Dubai, leaving her alone with her two kids.  But that was another story.

During the whole April I also signed up on a driving school, going to lectures and taking theory test, failing the road test, taking driving classes, failing test again, and taking more classes now.  More time and money wasted on a testing system that is totally confusing and there's nothing you can do unless you keep paying money.    So all in all this last month was not great.  But I did manage to survive, thanks to some great friends who give me support and love all the time.   

So Yesterday I made a card for a challenge.  It is the CAS-UAL Fridays Stamping Challenge

And here's my card. I use three major ingredients for the card: Chevron washi tape, Stamping, and liquid pearls.  (it looks a bit like a Christmas card with the pearls, though.)

This green/blue chevron pattern is my favourite washi tape. I line them up one by one and it's just clean and modern.

The dot on the flower was originally light blue. I put a liquid pearl later on just to add a bit of a small pop, just like the first photo.

See the silver finish on the wreath?  I haven't used perfect pearls for a while and this is just great to add some shine to the stamped image.  (I did use a silver pen to fill in the upper left side of the wreath but it didn't work very well.  Glad I stopped there and didn't go on) 

All in all, I'm still not feeling excited about this coming road test.  After hearing a lot of dark sides of the testing system I'm just not feeling hopeful at all.  But life has to move on. We'll see.

CAS-style Happy Birthday card - with Avery Elle Laurels Stamp Set

In the world of the flower-loving scrapbooking and cardmaking, I'm probably the odd one who doesn't like using flowers as embellishments - especially the frilly ones with glitters on them.  The less, the better.  Too many petals, too busy.  All in all not a fan of flowers in my projects.

But a while ago I've been seeing lots of fantastic CAS cards with the prettiest leaves and simple flower shapes and I hesitated.   And I got this stamp set from my great friend Renee - 

Avery Elle Laurels Stamps http://www.averyelle.com/laurels-clear-stamps/

This brand is know for its quality stamps, and they have matching dies to offer as well.  Unfortunately I didn't get any dies so I have to hand-cut the shapes.  But nothing is too much of a hassle for card-making, and after 1 hour of inspiration seeking, stamping and cutting, I made this card.

I chose not to stack up the stamp colours as its original purposes, and just add liquid pearls on the flowers.  They look modern and simple.  Also love the vibrant colours it brings out. Highly recommended! 

Valentine's Day Card made with just ribbons and twines - No punch, no stamp, no tool needed. Super easy!

Remember back in my home I had tons of washi tapes and I made all kinds of cards such as this one?

Cards like this takes little time to finish, and usually with simple lines washi tapes make great CAS cards.  Therefore, when I saw CAS-ual Friday's challenge this time, I knew my one hundred and one washi tapes will make it work. 

And then what do you know?  I forgot to pack any washi tape with me for travel this time.

So I looked around and found some ribbons I got from the local scrapbooking shop right before leaving Singapore.  And so I made this card. :-)

What I did was to position the two ribbons and fixed with double-sided tapes.  Then I hand-cut the hearts and stacked them together with foam tape, tied a twine, (notice that I cut the bottom of the bigger heart so the twine stays in place) and adhered with foam tape on the card.

Style-wise, since this card is for my husband, I want it to look modern and masculine.  I picked a geometric patterned paper and then use one pink and one chevron heart.  I think that pink heart is all he can take LOL.

And a close-up look at it you'll see the laminated crowns on the pink heart.  Cute!  :-D

So you see, no punch, no stamp, no tool. With just scissors it's surprisingly easy.  Happy card-making! (when you travel light :-D )

Live Life to the Fullest - A CAS monochromatic card (almost) -

Now, after days making cards and a mini album for my beloved friends in Singapore, yesterday I finally have time to sit down and actually do what I want to do - playing with challenges.  The great thing about challenges is that you get to stretch your creativity by different topics/style/techniques given by the challenge, and to finish projects that give you lots of FUN!  I'm not fussed with prizes as there are numerous more creative crafters than myself that deserve to win, and I get to see their projects as well.   (Once would be good though hahaha.)


So here it goes, my favorite CAS challenge -

CAS-ual Fridays  -  They are always popular!
http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.sg/2014/01/cfc125.html



CAS(E) this Sketch #59 - this is the first time I joined their challenge and as long as it's CAS then I like it! http://casethissketch.blogspot.sg/2014/01/case-this-sketch-59.html


And giving that I'm at a hotel and don't have a lot of tools I think I did a good job too.  It's the good old cut and paste, but looks pretty cool. :-)

From the side -

Black is not always popular, but it's always COOL~ 

Forest Fantasty Christmas Card - with embossing resist technique

Yesterday while my hard-working husband was too tired to tell me to go to bed early, I managed to finish a card inspired by Jennifer Mcquire's starry night sky card demonstration, with the 'emboss resist' technique.  Because I rarely make distressed styles, this is one of the few that I actually enjoyed and accomplished with great satisfaction.

Well, I do not have all of Jennifer's gadgets, so I simple use what's at hand to make it. And I don't even have a proper snow flake stamp! Eventually I found a teeny tiny snowflakeskish (forgive my crappy English) stamp to make it.  To be honest I'm not sure about the flakes.

So, here it is.  (I also made a bow too but not sure if it's unnessary.)

This card is also up for  CAS-ual Fridays challenge! 

Tools used:  

Stamp - Inky Antics and Inkadinkado

White embossing powder by AC Zing!

Ink pads from Versacolor - Scarlet and Turquoise 

Here're the pictures before the snowflakes