Cute and Foxy

I am slowly learning how to use my Cricut Explore Air 2...very slowly.

Luckily for me, there are a lot of crafters posting tutorials, tips and tricks and (best of all!) free SVG files for Cricut. I was immediately enchanted by this adorable fox design and was inspired to put it to use on at least two cards. The one above is the card I made for my eighth aunt's baby shower. I just modified the size make the fox cub. I also put together an engagement card for a distant cousin.

I love using paint chips for the variety of colours that they offer and the fact they come in small swatches so I am not wasting a large sheet each time.

Hopefully, when I am more comfortable using the design program, I can start designing my own images to share!

Is it not a beautiful piece of technology? ;) 

Sakura-inspired Cards

There's something beautifully serene about cherry blossoms. I do not even remember when and where I got this particular paper punch but this design idea has been percolating in my brain for the longest time. It was great for using up some of my paint chip scraps but it is a very labour intensive card. Every tiny flower has to be individually punched out and then glued to the card base. My intention is for these to be 'Thinking of You" cards and I am quite pleased with how they turned out. However, I am undecided as to whether this design looks better with or without the gold accents.

This is the process it takes to make this card: (I really enjoyed taking these in-progress shots!)

I decided to try adding gold accents to one of the cards and it is fascinating to see just how different the whole style of the card seems.

I am starting to get back into the crafting frame of mind. [Thanks to lots of encouragement from my husband! I think he's decided that this is the most likely way that my mountains of craft supplies will start decreasing....by being used. ;) ] Stay tuned for a few more of my projects in the coming weeks! 

A Black and White Happy Birthday

I copied this card design from a pin I saw on Pinterest - I loved the clean simplicity of the original.

I am slowly working my way through my Card Smith pre-cut card set. The gifts were made from scraps of craft tape. Although it's just black and white, it still manages to be lively and fun!

Bear-y Cute Cards

I was cleaning up my basement the other day when I stumbled upon an old sheet of adorable bear stickers. The glue had lost most of its stickiness but the colours were not faded and the images were still incredibly cute. I decided to whip together this quick set of baby cards.

I used the pre-cut cards from Card Smith as a base. Each one had their own envelope which made for a nice set. 

I love the ombre you get from paint chips! I picked colours which match my patterned card.

I cut out squares/rectangles with a utility knife.

I played around with a few different arrangements but I liked this one best.

I mounted each square on a small piece of craft foam to achieve a 3D effect.

The final product was simple, clean and adorable!

I'm all ready for my next 3 baby showers!

The One with the Birthday

I have been slowly making my way through all the seasons of FRIENDS. (Almost done!) I saw this design on Pinterest and knew exactly who I wanted to make this card for....

More Babies!

I had almost forgotten about this card. A family friend had a baby boy while I was neck deep studying for my exams. A simple card was all I could manage at the time but it was a nice break from memorizing genes and biochemical pathways. :)

Stamps and Ribbons

Playing around with some crafting elements on pre-cut card sets. Simple, fast and colourful!

Merry Christmas!

A quick card for a Christmas gift. Gotta work on my lettering for next year. Maybe I'll make it a new years resolution... :)

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Science and Sparkles

Since I'm in the thick of my busy final year of residency, I'm only able to do papercrafting on a need-to basis these days...so I'm trying to manufacture more need-to situations. ;) 

My friend, Amy, got a full time teaching job a few months ago and so I volunteered to make a card for our Career small group to sign and congratulate her. I had a small bottle of glitter that I had been saving since high school and it was great finally coming up with a way of using them. 

A very simple design, the lettering needs work but overall, it was great having an excuse to pull out my supplies again. :)

Christmas Cards: A Mass Production

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is enjoying some blessed time with family and friends to celebrate our Lord's birth.

This post has been long overdue but today was when I finally found a little time to put it up. (Sorry for the delay, gals.)

There are some crafts that require many painstaking hours to produce a single final product and then there are others which you can churn out en mass. A few weekends ago, my sister and I went over to our friend Nissi's apartment for an afternoon of crafting. I have no idea how many cards we cranked out over the course of 4 hours but it certainly wasn't just one (as evidenced from the picture above).

Nissi has a love of calligraphy and an indifferent attitude towards card design. I enjoy designing cards but have weak lettering skills - really, it was a perfect match! :) We spent a happy afternoon gushing over paper and art supplies and bonding over our daydream of one day opening an Etsy store. (There's just the small matter of our day jobs which unfortunately, takes up a great deal of our time... :P)

Now for a closer look at some of our creations:

These two cards were designed and lettered by my friend, Wyanne. 

She lined the snowflake with tin foil which looked great in person but unfortunately, I wasn't able to do it justice in my photos.

This was my favorite design. Who knew that black would work so well as a Christmas card? I think it looks classy!

The great thing about punches is that you can use both the positive and the negative. Black snowflakes look surprisingly good.

This was designed and lettered by my sister. Do you recognize where the pieces of the tree come from? That's right, from the tinges of a green punched snowflake. Creative, no?

Will this be the start of a new Christmas crafting tradition? Who knows... but either way, I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas this year! See you in 2016!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Last weekend, my family celebrated my father's birthday. It was a low-key affair with just 19 people. (Okay,  yes, I come from a big family. These were only the relatives who were in town - you should see our Christmas gatherings :). My sister and I spent all of the previous weekend making longevity buns of which you only see a small selection in the picture above. For those of you who don't know what those are, these are steamed buns made in the shape of a longevity peach and are filled with some sort of sweet paste. These ones were made with an egg custard.

That Saturday, my original plan was to make maybe a batch of 30 or so buns and be done in an afternoon. My mother decided that since we were making steamed buns then we might as well make some to freeze and eat later. So... 5 batches of dough, 12 hours and over 100 steamed buns later... my whole Saturday was gone :P. If some of the buns in the picture look a little lopsided then all I can say is that quality control tends to go down after your 80th bun.

However, some of the buns did turn out pretty darn cute!

This was probably the best of the bunch. 

Artfully arranged on a plate as a triplet. 

It's amazing what a little food colouring will do to liven up your food.

To continue on with the longevity bun theme, I also put together a large card in the shape of a longevity peach. I have to credit a friend from my church's career small group for suggesting the idea.

15 years of Chinese school were not wasted since my sister and I managed to write an entirely Chinese message on the inside. All in all, it was a nice chance to do some crafts which reflect my Chinese heritage.

Happy Birthday Dad!

A Winter Wedding...in June

Have you ever been inspired to create something? Inspired to the point that you suddenly wake up from a sound sleep thinking "I've got it! I have to make this NOW!" Well, that's the story with this card and let me tell you, that sort of inspiration is tiring. (I'm never crazy about being woken from a sound sleep - even by a creative muse. :P)

The mentors of my church's Career small group/fellowship (we've grown to be a fair size) recently celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. During one of our more recent discussions on dating and marriage, one of the mentors mentioned that a winter wedding would have been lovely with fur lined dresses and sleighs carrying the wedding party (Her husband didn't look convinced.) As a thank you gesture to the couple for their years of mentorship, we thought to give them a card signed by everyone in the group wishing them all the best. I couldn't recreate her dream of a winter wedding but I could make a sleigh which is why this Happy Anniversary card looks so much like a Christmas card. :)

Pop-up cards are really cool but they do require some experimentation in paper engineering. I'm quite proud of myself for this card because the entire sleigh was designed from scratch. I literally just woke up one Sunday morning and knew exactly how to put the whole thing together. Unfortunately, it was only an hour before church that morning so I ended up running a little close in terms of time. 

No fancy punches this time - just some imagination and an exacto knife. Pretty cool, eh?

Flowers and Bridal Showers

I know, I know... I am falling behind on my posts. I must admit that it's flattering to see that my slacking has actually been noticed. :) I've been too busy lately to do crafts - but I'm sure you've already guessed that.

However, occasionally, crafting becomes a priority. My sister had to go to a bridal shower last weekend and she needed two cards. I promised to make them for her...and then ended up procrastinating until it was almost too late. As you can see from the picture above and below though, I made them just in time. (And even was able to take pictures before my sister had to bolt out the door!)

The design was simple and I finally got to play with a few of my unopened toys. First of all, I was excited to use one of my new embossing folders. I think the raised effect of the background makes it seem a touch fancier than usual. I embossed both the front and back but unfortunately, the pressure of doing the front flattened the design on the back so it wasn't as crisp. 

By the way, these folders were one of my few impulse buys. I was strolling through Michaels one day when I saw all of them for sale for well less than half price! The designs are basic and versatile and so I could not resist swiping them all. 

Yes, I know. I have a lot of craft supplies.

I punched out the flowers with a punch from my pack of 40 and stuck gemstone stickers in the middle of a few. I had originally planned to make the bow out of cardstock as well but my sister insisted on ribbon which, I must agree, works better. 

All in all, not bad for something thrown together in half an hour. :)

It's a Girl!

Having already made an It's a Boy! card, naturally, I needed to make an It's a Girl! version. This one is for some friends whose daughter was just born two weeks ago. I got the chance to play with my Sizzix for the first time and I love it! I'm already making a list of all the new dies and folders that I want to get for it. (Yes, cardmaking is an expensive hobby if you really get into it...which I have.)

I decided to take some in-progress shots while making this card so you can follow along. The design is pretty simple so it only took me an hour to complete.

I started with an envelope. I have a whole shoebox of random envelopes which my mother has amassed over the years. Pack-rat tendencies are inherited :)

I then measure out a piece of cardstock to fit the envelope.

I try to maximize any piece of cardstock I use to reduce waste. (I also want to have as much space to work with as possible.)

I scored along the centre fold with the tip of an empty mechanical pencil. When you are using cardstock, scoring is an important technique to make sure that your fold is as accurate as possible. 

The sheet was then cut down to size. 

I folded along the scored centre line. For thick card, I recommend wetting the score line slightly so that the paper does not fray or crack when folded. Use only the tiniest bit of water though - you don't want your paper to warp.

I used a Martha Stewart Classic Butterfly punch to create ombre pink butterflies from paint chips.

1 paint chip = 17 butterflies :)

Out came the Sizzix! I punched out some trendy letters with one of my many letter dies set. This machine was such a bargain! 

I positioned all of the elements onto the cardstock and then sketched in the rest of my design. I borrowed the image from one of the sticker packs I bought from Dollarama.

With everything glued down and my doodle drawn in black fine liner, here is the final result!

I actually made this card a few weeks ago and it has been proudly sitting in my display case for the last little while. The choice of pink was deliberate since my sister has already purchased a cute pink jacket for the baby. So far, all our baby shower gifts have been accompanied by a coordinating card and I really didn't want to break that trend.

Of course, I need to add my signature.

I liked the design so much and it was so quick and easy to make that I threw together a purple version as well.

I used a smaller paintchip which is why there aren't as many butterflies. 

I have another friend who is now pregnant (it's like an epidemic :P) but she wants the sex of the baby to be a surprise. I guess my next card is just going to have to say "It's a Baby!" :)