Thinking of You - Embossed and Distressed Card with Botanical Tea Theme

When I received this beautiful Graphic 45 - Botanical Tea 8*8 paper pad, I was completely blown away.  G45 is famous for manufacturing some of the most beautiful patterned papers in the industry, and this paper pad again lives the reputation!  It really made my day as it's a birthday gift from Renee, and I just have to make something beautiful (I try!) with it.

Therefore I made a Thinking of You card to try it out, using Cuttlebug for embossing and distressing the edges a bit too.   and I'm pleased with the result.

I wasn't sure if the card needed some flourishes so I added one, but now it seems to be blocking the beautiful bird and I forgot to distress too.  But overall I'm happy with it.

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~ 

Pink birthday card for teenager

Since after I got back from Dubai I really haven't gotten much time sitting down put the cards I made online. The reality is, I've had about a dozen of farewell gatherings with friends in Singapore - the play date mums, different groups of friends, school mums, scrapbooking friends, etc.  Nonetheless, I feel thankful to have made so many great friends within such a short time in Singapore, and so my blog's pageviews which has dropped to average 1-2 per day is just miner issue.

Apparently during the holiday season, people still have birthdays (LOL).  So I've made some birthday cards in between the Christmas card making marathon.

Here's the one I made for my niece, who's turning 15 this December.  I use my favorite Swiss dot embossing folder and Spellbinders Nestabilities dies to accomplish the layers, plus Martha Stewart butterflies stamp to stamp the butterfly, Copic colour and trim it.

 

Embossed Christmas Card - Red and Beige

Today is my scheduled scrap-booking date with my good friend, Nathalie, and as usual we produced quite a nice batch of Christmas cards.  Although I didn't make as many as she did (please see her works at http://nathouest.canalblog.com/) , I'm quite happy with the result of this one.

This is actually inspired by Papercrafts Magazine Issue Nov/Dec 2013.
http://www.papercraftsconnection.com/blog/2013/10/novdec-2013-go-to-sketch/

Here's the sketch. Quite easy, isn't it?  Well yes except the bow, which I tried tying it up through a punched whole, and I ended up breaking it through!  In the end had to use a glue gun to make the piece. Whew.

But anyway, I did it, and it looks great!

Woohoo!  So now I have only about another 10 different cards to make.  (I only send 1 style to 2-3 people. I don't make 30 of the same cards and send them to all different people.)

Blue Christmas Card Part 2 - Glittering Star on Christmas Tree. No special tool needed!

I believe that in every card-maker's mind, deep-deep-deep-down somewhere, there's always a little voice trying to tell us to just stop buying for this year's Christmas paper/stamps.  For just once.  So my determination this coming Christmas is stop buying Christmas paper, which I did!  (But there's no stopping buying stamps)

So I flipped through my old Christmas stock (so glad I bought a lot last year)  and found some nice paper to use.  And I did too, with a little help from this year's stamps woohoo!

And I really love it!  The last thing I want my Christmas card to look like is those commercially made ones that screams "Boring!"  To me personal style is very important, whether if it's traditional, cute, nostalgic, retro, Victorian, distressed, flashy or cheeky.  So whilst it's not perfect, it is definitely of someone's style and unique.  (That is also why I don't like to send all my relatives and friends SAME Christmas cards)


But making your own style doesn't mean you can't get inspirations from Two Peas or Pinterest. For example I looked on Pinterest for layout inspirations and made this card. Besides every time I look at other great works and think "I'm gonna make that too!" and it always end up differently, which is part of the fun too.  

I use last year's BoBunny cardstock, putting glittering powder on the star on the Christmas tree and adhere the piece on the right side of the card, which was stamped with scripts in white ink.  Then I emboss Christmas Greeting on scrap paper, cut around it and stick it on the corner with foam tape.

Then I stamp the snow flake on another scrap paper, cut around it, get a whole, and tie the twine through it and tie a knot. Finish!

Stamping and Embossing: Simple Christmas card.

About stamps.

Although I am not a 10-year veteran stamper, it's safe say that most stampers can't feel much difference amongst stamps made of different materials - whether rubber, wood-mounted or clear.  I have pretty bad wooden ones as well as 'cling' stamps which do not cling to the grid block at all. And some say clear stamps can be tricky and hard to line, but stored properly they're still great and easy to use.  And even for larger stamps it still requires good skills to get a perfect image.  So to me the there's no best brand or type.  More importantly it's the ink pads you choose to achieve different effects, and the tips to stamp a perfect image that really matter.


For this card I use three of the most commonly used card-making techniques - stamping, embossing and die-cutting. For stamping this card I use Studio g stamps, one mounted, one not.  Studio ghas lots of inexpensive clear and mounted stamps, and in terms of quality, I can't feel any difference from other popular brands such as Hero Arts or KaiserCraft.  However I did make a mistake, which is that I chose a textured card stock to make the base. It caused the stamp not able to adhere ink onto the surface and therefore you can see some dents in the image.

Materials used:

Embossing and cutting - Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Nestibilities Dies
Stamping - (for the tree and sentiment) Studio g clear and mounted stamps
Cardstock - AC

Layout-wise, this is probably one of the most easy cards I made. And it's cute too. :-)

Pink Happy Birthday card. Fit for a little princess.

I must admit I don't use my Silhouette Cameo(bought last June) often than I think.  It is a great tool, and especially with the Print-and-Cut and the Sketch function I simply must justify for its value this year.

Luckily with the encouragement from my friend Nathalie I started not only learning new techniques but also have picked up the machine again. The result came beautifully today I think I'm going use the tools a lot more.

This card is for Ashley's school mate, Victoria. She's having her 4th birthday so I made it for her. As far as little girls are concerned, who doesn't like a fairy princess on a pink card?

1. Make pink card from card stock.
2. Do partial embossing with Cuttlebug embossing folder. Like this

3. Adhere a cute patterned panel on middle section of the card. Affix washi tape across center.
4. Use cutting machine to cut out two labels with the same shape. Colour the edge of the bigger piece, emboss the smaller piece, and adhere. Affix mini flower brads. Use foam tape to adhere label to card
5. Use cutting machine to cut a princess/fairy. Use glitter colour pens to emphasize hair, skirt and so on, and affix sparkle on crown. Adhere to card with foam tape on only head and feet.

6. Stamp Happy Birthday on paper and trim. Adhere to card. Finished. YAY!

Love card - Partially embossing technique

Last night as usual I was just watching youtube to see if there's anything new inspirations, and I came across this video that I decide to try today.  It's called 'Partial Embossing' technique, and after a few practices I found I needed some adjustments with the thickness needed to go through Cuttlebug.  I guess every Cuttlebug has it's own personality and tolerance of abuse. (HA)  But once you got the right thickness you'll know it's so easy!

1. Make white card from card stock.
2. Emboss card with the technique mentioned (see video below)
3. Stamp sentiment in the blank circle area.
4. Punch a small hole on side of card and tie with baker's twine.


You can check this video to learn how it works, and then just follow the basic principle to make your own design.  I tried the partial embossing technique( the first part of embossing in video) with my Cuttlebug and it didn't work, so I added another blank card(thickness of two pieces of paper) and it worked beautifully. 

Double embossing with Cuttlebug and nestabilities

by Nilda Rockenbach

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEbGqao5Gcw

Baby Boy card - Welcome Little One

Marie-jose Jed is one of my good friends I met in Singapore. She's also the first Lebanese French I've known, and a very talented painter/artist indeed.  This mum is so multi-tasking that she does cooking, baking, teaching at college, organizing her own exhibition, and was pregnant for the past 8 months while looking after her three-year-old daughter at the same time.  Just two weeks ago she finally unloaded and had her second child, Peter, and so I made a baby boy card for the new arrival.

With this card you can use a Cuttlebug or similar embossing machine to do it, but you can also do without by using just patterned paper to create visual contrast.  With the baby pram I use Print and Cut with Silhouette Cameo to make it, and add sparkles and brads to it.  I don't do cute cards a lot but this is one of them.  Still it looks clean and layout-wise simple, which is what I like.

1. Make 5.5 inch square card from card stock

2. Emboss two panels, one white and one light blue, with different embossing folders. Adhere both to card.

3. Affix blue chevron washi tape onto a white strip, trim, and adhere to card. Adhere scalloped border to card. Adhere light yellow ribbon with double-sided tape.

4. Punch two circles and adhere. Use silhouette cameo to print and cut out pram, adhere with sparkle. Affix brads. Adhere pram onto circle piece.

5. Stamp Welcome Little One to strip. Trim and adhere with foam tape.

6. Adhere circle piece with foam tape.

It's a lot of gluing and measuring, but I'm happy with end result and to be honest this is still probably quite simple to some of fellow card-making artists!  

Close-up :-)

A pink and feminine card for a good friend

Living in Singapore for over two years, I found myself deeply in love with many things that are so uniquely of this particular dot on earth.  From tourist attractions and public facilities, eclectic alleys and lanes, rich food culture and respect of different races... to name a few.  I also made friends with some of the nicest people.  And as a friend I would love to make a card for each one of them.

1. Make white card from card stock.
2. Make two pink panels, one slightly lighter than the other one.
3. Emboss the light link panel with Cuttlebug. Adhere to the darker pink panel.
4. Trim and make a white panel same width as the pink panel. Punch scalloped border on one side. Affix washi tapes. Adhere white panel to the pink body. Adhere to card.
5. Punch and stamp chandelier. Adhere to card.

( Generally I like clean cards. I never like a card that's too complicated or overflowing with ribbons and 3D flowers.  So I didn't add any thing like pearls. But maybe someday I'll try)

Get Well Soon card - for Teacher Lyz

Ashley's English teacher, Lyz, is pregnant but she has diabetic due to her pregnancy and a few weeks ago she's checked into the hospital to make sure everything's alright.  Therefore I made this card for her, wishing her the all the best and safe throughout the pregnancy.

1. Make card base.
2. Make a brown panel from brown card stock. Use border punch to punch scalloped border on one side. Affix wash tapes on both sides. Adhere to card base
3. Die cut three butterflies from 3 different card stock. Stamp the medium one and emboss the smallest one with Cuttlebug. Affix in size order. Affix sparkles on the butterfly. Adhere to card.
4. Stamp flourishes and affix sparkles on card.
5. Stamp sentiment.

'Hello, Friend' card

I love paper crafting with my French friend, Nathalie Durand (http://nathouest.canalblog.com/).  We do lots of stamping, distressing, making cards and mini-albums, babbling about daily things and living in Singapore.  One thing worth mentioning is that this lady is always so efficient in making cards.  She can make six cards out from scratch whereas I can barely finish two within two hours.  Yesterday, however, I made three cards, which had never happened before.  I guess not over-thinking or overrunning your mind flow is very important.  In other words, focus, focus, focus.

And one of the cards I made. It's a bit cute but not over the top.  Quite simple actually.

1. Make white card base

2. Make a shiny pink panel that is slightly smaller than the card base. Leave it and don't adhere to card base yet.

3. Make a white rectangle panel a bit smaller than the pink panel. Emboss it with Cuttlebug. Adhere it to the pink panel. Then adhere the to card base. 

4. Stamp bottle, Hello Friend and heart on a piece of white paper. Trim around the shape of the bottle. 

5. Find a cute patterned paper from cardstock and trim it.  Adhere to card. Adhere the bottle to card with foam tape.

Tools used:

Paper Trimmer, Scoring board, scissors, adheresive (glue or glue tape), Cuttlebug embossing machine and embossing folder, acrylic block (for stamping), foam tape.