Winnings from Card Pattern's Sketch #116!

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!! I actually won something. I'm still hyperventilating. I never win anything! I had submitted my entry for a challenge over at Card Patterns and when the results for the Sketch #116 Super 6 were posted, I was reading it and sad that I did not get picked. But that was before I read the whole post! I was the lucky winner picked by Random.org for the awesome Penny Black prize! I get to pick one transparent set of stamps and one pack of Penny Black's Mix n Match Cardstock. So here is what I picked!

Air Mail Stamp Set

Clear Skies - Pack of 9 - 80lb Cardstock

Pictures are from the official Penny Black website. It is a great start to my day!! Can't wait!!

Thank you for visiting my blog!

Sketch Book For Me!

I had a new sketch book which looked too plain for me so I thought that I could spruce it up a little. So this is what I came up with. It is relatively simple because it has to be flat enough for me to sketch on. Basically, all the materials used are from Tim Holtz except for the flower in the corner and the crystals. The papers are from the Lost and Found collection. Dunno why I have not really used those papers until now. They are amazing! I am loving the fact that I can make my own fragment charms! And it is sooo easy. I also love the sayings from the stamp set by Stampers Anonymous called 'Good Thoughts'.

That's all I have for today! Have a great week ahead everyone!

Simple Thank You Card

This is just a simple card I made to show my appreciation to the parents of my sister in law. It's a complicated story but basically they allowed me to purchase scrapbook supplies online and get it sent over to their place in the States and then pass it over to my in laws when they met them in London to bring back to Malaysia for me. Told you it was complicated. Hahaha..Got some stuff from Two Peas in a Bucket. Regret..Should have bought things from Papertrey Ink instead. Anyhow...Hahaha..

The flower is a stamp from Hero Arts called Sweet Petals from their 2011 collection. I embossed the image in white on some white cardstock and coloured it in with my Tim Holtz distress ink in Dusty Concord. I then sprayed it over with Glimmer Mist in Pearl. I cut out three different layers and adhered one on top of the other with foam dots for more dimension.

The pearls are from Kaiser and the Thank You stamp from Lawn Fawn's Sophie's Sentiments stamp set.

Hope you enjoed the simple card. Have a great weekend!

Hanging Sign for Sister's 30th Birthday

So far, my knack of altering items tend to sway towards hanging signs. This is probably the fourth one I have made and it is the biggest one yet. I made this for my sister's 30th birthday recently and hope she likes it. There are going to be more than the usual number of pictures so hope you enjoy reading this post!

I cut out the sign with chipboard using the Scallop Rectangle #2 die from Sizzix. I bought this die initially so that I could make my own mini albums but have not yet done so. :) The die cut size is approximately 8.75 inches by 4.75 inches, so it is pretty big.

The chipboard letters were just from my stash and I used Claudine Helmuth's Multi Medium Sealer as a first coat, then acrylic paint from Folk Art. The glitter is also from a Jo Sonja medium called Opal Dust. After this coat, I layered on Tim Holtz's Distress Crackle paint in Rock Candy and I liked the effect, but I think I may have preferred smaller cracks.

The above image is from The Greeting Farm and she is from the Creeper Crew collection called CC Tuesday. I coloured her in with Copic markers and used Stickles as an accent on her crown and her hair clip. I also used a glitter gel pen over her eyes as eyeshadow. :)

The blue flower above and the pink flower (as seen in the first photo) were made from eight different flower petals. It is really easy to make. I used Lindy Stamp Gang's Starburst Sprays on both the flowers. I think the colours I used were Hottie Pattotie Pink and Tibetan Poppy Teal. The number '30' is from a bingo chip set by Maya Road.

For her birthday wish, I printed the sentiments on cardstock and cut it out with Spellbinder's Nestabilities Labels 4. The banner up top is from a Lawn Fawn set called Bannerific and I think it is simply wonderful! You can do many different things with it. The pearl flourish embellishment is from Prima.

Well, that's all for today. Hope you all enjoyed reading and have a great weekend!

Card Entry for 3 Different Card Challenges!

As I am writing this post, I am still thinking how I managed to combine three card challenges by making just one card. Hope that it qualifies me for all three. Had a lot of fun making this card. This card is being entered for the following challenges :

1. Card Patterns Sketch 116
2. Farm Fresh Friday - Summer Lovin'! for The Greeting Farm
3. The Craft's Meow presents...Embossing Challenge over at Lily Pad Cards

This is Sketch #116 over at Card Patterns :


This is my take on the sketch :


As you can see, I love paper piecing my images at the moment! The colours I used are really bright because that is the theme for the challenge over at the Farm Fresh Challenge Blog, to use summer colours. The pattern papers are from Echo Park's A Walk In The Park collection. The stamped image is Hello Ian from The Greeting Farm.

I embossed the semi-circles with my Cuttlebug embossing folder. Ian's cap is also embossed and paper pieced for more dimension. The embossing features are to fulfill the Craft's Meow embossing challenge over at Lily Pad Cards.

Finally, I added some glossy accents to accentuate the flower and the two little buttons on his shirt.

Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for visiting my blog!

Lucy Lovely Lines Sketch Challenge at Lily Pad Cards and a Lawnscaping Challenge

This is my entry for the Lucy Lovely Lines Sketch Challenge over at Lily Pad Cards. Lily Pad Cards was recently created by some beautiful people and I am always excited to see what new challenges or posts they come up with. The topics have always been interesting and they have the utmost talented design team members. Do visit them if you get the chance.

The sketch that we were given to be inspired by at Lily Pad Cards is as follows :

I am also entering this card for a challenge over at Lawnscaping Challenge Blog for Challenge #10 themed Polka Dots. Lawnscaping is a blog for avid lovers of Lawn Fawn stamps and I of course, love Lawn Fawn stamps!! So here goes!

This is my take on the sketch and the polka dot theme. It is not really my usual style but I must say I like how it turned out.

I used a few different stamp sets from Lawn Fawn - Sew Lovely, Bannerific and Sophie's Sentiments. I am really into paper piecing recently, not sure why. I used patterned papers from My Mind's Eye Lime Twist Collection called Life of the Party for the dress form, buttons and spools. The green polka dot background paper is also from MME and it is from their Antique Dots paper pad, which is HUGE..

I used the Classic Ovals Small from Spellbinder as a base for the dress form image. I then inked it with some Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Spun Sugar. The cardstock is from We Are Memory Keepers.

I hope that you enjoyed reading and thank you for visiting!

MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge #20

After a long hiatus from participating in the card challenges over at My Favorite Stamps, I managed to complete the above card for Sketch #20. I had this stamp for a while but never got to play with it until now. I am pretty happy with the results and the colours that I chose.

I used papers from Cosmo Cricket's Pixielicious Collection along with some cardstock from DCWV and We Are Memory Keepers. The stamped image is from My Favorite Things ("MFT") called 'Believe in Magic' and I coloured her in with my Copic Markers but decided to paper piece her skirt. I thought it would give the image more dimension. :) I used Star Dust Stickles on her little fairy wings. The border is a Die-namic from MFT called the Faux Crochet Border.

The blings that you see on the card is from my new toy. It's the Imaginisce I-ROCK heat set tool and the Imaginisce Jewels Hot Rocks which are purchased separately. I bought this in the hope that because I can buy hot fix jewels in bulk, I will save more money in the long run then buying those self-adhesive blings.

I would like to know whether readers prefer to see the materials used to make a particular card in like a list format or whether it is alright the way I present it now. Do leave me your comments if you have some thoughts on this. :)

Hope you enjoyed reading this! Have a great weekend everyone!

Which One Wednesday - Sketch #3

This is my first entry for any type of challenge over at The Greeting Farm. If you are like me and love their stamps, please head on over to TGF Farm Fresh Challenge Blog to enter. The sketch for this challenge is as below.

This is my take on the sketch.

I decided to keep it simple this round. I wanted to use my new Ian stamps but am not very good when it comes to making manly cards, that is why the card is so simple. I coloured Ian with my Copic markers and decided to paper piece his shirt. I used patterned papers from Basic Grey's Oliver Collection and foam dots to create a more dimensional look. I cut out the stamped image using Spellbinder's Nestabilities in the Classic Ovals Large.

Please excuse my cut-off watermarking. I accidentally made the font too big!

May 2011 Card Chain Challenge at Lily Pad Cards

This is the first time that I am entering this card challenge over at Lily Pad Cards and I must say, it is one of the most interesting card challenges I have come across. This is because, when you enter this card challenge, you will actually get someone to send your card to and in return, you will get a card sent to you. You could also send gifts and items to your secret challenge pal (like pen pal, hahaha) and it could be like a swap. I think it is so cool. If you are interested in this challenge, please do not hesitate to join over at Lily Pad Cards. I hope that the recipient of my card will like it!

I also made this card as a submission for Sketch Challenge #113 over at Card Patterns Weekly Sketch Blog. The sketch is as below but I turned it to face sideways. I used Greeting Farm's Stella stamp and papers from Cosmo Cricket's Pixielicious Paper Pad. The ribbon is seam binding I purchased on Etsy. I added some Prima Pearls and some brads to accentuate the card.

Have a great weekend everyone! Happy Crafting!

Our Italy Trip - Part 3 - Venice

Hello Venice!

On the 2nd of April, we left Milan to venture on to Venice. We took a train from Milan Centrale Station to Venice Santa Lucia station. Remember to buy the ticket for the Santa Lucia station because otherwise, you will end up on the industrial part of Venice. The train station in Venice is not as impressive as the Milan one. You can experience Venice as soon as you step foot out of the train station. The old buildings, the Vaporettos (public water buses) and of course the sheer number of people or tourists! Note that even if you had big luggages like us, you can still take the vaporetto. We were not charged a ticket for the bags and it was fairly easy to lift the bags on and off the boat. Of course, if you had a lot of luggages and plan to take the vaporetto, I suggest that you stay at a hotel close to the vaporetto stops because Venice is all about streets which are more like mazes and steps over bridges. If on the other hand, you are willing to pay anything between 60 to 100 Euros for a private water taxi, then choose to stay wherever you would like because otherwise you would not be able to find your hotel on your own.

Hotel Villa Igea

We stayed at Hotel Villa Igea which was just a few steps away from the San Zaccaria vaporetto stop. It's a quaint little place but with no views of the canal or anything. We knew that beforehand so did not expect much. Location was fantastic as it was just 2 minutes away from Piazza San Marco. We loved Venice very much except for the smelly canals. That was the reason we did not do the cliche thing of renting a gondola for a romantic ride. We did not think it would be very romantic when we could not even stand the smell from the canals. To rent a gondola would set you back something like 100 Euros (approximately RM 430) for a 20-30 minute ride.

There is a mini orchestra playing every night

Tea served on a silver platter

The only cliche thing we did in Venice was to have tea at Caffe Florian. This caffe is Italy's oldest caffe (as declared on their website) and is approximately 291 years old. I love how the westerners strive to preserve as much of their history and traditions as possible. We also visited Harry's Bar which is also a very old caffe. This bar is famous for the Bellini drink and also for that fact that Ernest Hemingway used to come here. We were not allowed to take pictures inside but my husband and I were not impressed at all with the place. Yes it is old and therefore I expected much more character to the place but we found it bland. The Bellini was pretty darn good though. :)

The two pictures above are of the Doges Palace

St. Mark's Basilica

Famous bronze horses from the time of Constantinople

The main tourist attractions in Venice are really all around Piazza San Marco. We visited the Doges Palace, St. Mark's Basilica and the Clock Tower. We also visited the Peggy Guggenheim Modern Art Museum but mostly, we walked the streets of Venice, getting lost now and then. There is a lot to do in Venice. Good food, good wine, opera, shopping and lots more. Oh, we also bought a paper mache mask which is beautiful but I have not taken pictures of it yet. Will update when I do. I will leave you here with a picture I took while we were leaving Venice. Sob Sob...

Bye Bye Venice! See you again soon!