12 Tags of 2014 - October

Happy Halloween everyone!

I'm afraid on this day I'm bringing you not anything Halloween but a Christmas tag.  Again I procrastinated to make my 12 Tags of 2014 - October until the very last minute.  But, better late than never!

For this tag I've played with some of my new goodies:  Sizzix Merry Christmas stamp and die set, the spray stain (I am using iced spruce, picket fence and evergreen bough here) and the Styled Woodlands stamp set. 

My first impression of spray stain is that it is quite a big bottle (not complaining here but I imagined that it was smaller) and it is very easy to use.  It dries quickly too (otherwise the tag won't be ready before midnight today).  I've only got a few colors for this tag but am looking forward to try a couple more.

Thanks so much for stopping by and Happy Crafting!

Mass production - Christmas cards

Even though I love to create one of a kind cards, there are times that I mass produce cards.  My friend M volunteers at a local senior center and she asks if I could give her some cards for the members to write to their family.  For a good cause like this I am more than happy to oblige.  Who doesn't like it when our hobby turns into something meaningful like this?

But alas, I don't always have a big stash ready.  So mass production is the key here.  People say that a good pair of shoes will take you to good places.  I'd add that a good sketch will help you mass produce good-looking cards. :)

I shared a Halloween card a few days ago that used the My Favorite Things Blueprints die set 13.  Today I'm sharing 4 almost identical cards using the same sketch.

First one is one that says "Wishing you the Merriest Christmas".  I added some silver sequins on its side:

The second one is this one with this nice font saying "Season's Greetings".  This time I added some blings:

Then there is one that says "Christmas Joy" and I put some star sequins next to it:

Finally this one says "Merry and Bright."  I really like the big "&" and I added some pearl sequins on the banner:

Even though they are all so similar to each other, I wouldn't think it wasn't fun to make them.  I didn't feel it was repetitive either.  They each have a unique sentiment and unique embellishments.  They are still quite different!  

Here's a collage of all four cards together:

I'm glad that I'm using all four stamps in this Close to My Heart set called Merriest Christmas.  Nothing makes me feel better than loving all stamps in one set and using them all at once!  If you are into making cards using readily made kits, you may want to try the Cut Above Holiday Card kit or the Cut Above Christmas Card kit.  If you'd like a little more stamping, I recommend the Close to My Heart Cardmaking Workshops on the Go Snowhaven kit.

What kind of cardmaker are you?  Does the holiday season change your crafting habit?  Happy Crafting!

I'm linking my card to the following:

ABC Christmas - very Merry Christmas

Paper Minutes - Christmas and red

4 Crafty Chicks - Anything Goes

Aud Sentiments Challenge - two or three word sentiments

Are you ready for Halloween?

Are you ready for Halloween?  I am!

I am sharing a clean and simple, quick and easy Halloween card today:

Thanks to the My Favorite Things Blueprint die set, this card came together really easily.  The picture above may not be able to show the details on the striped panel, but the stitching edge is really nice and neat!  I used the Blueprint set 13 here and this beautiful card sketch came together within seconds.  The best part?  I have not even used all of the dies and I know I am going to explore the possibilities!

The paper came from an older Close to My Heart kit called Spellbound.  The kit was intended to make party favors and cupcake liners and such, but who says that it is limited to party decor?  It is equally great on cards. :)

I'm linking up my card to the following:
Die Cuttin' Divas - Happy Halloween
Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Crafty Card Makers and More - Die cuts
Dream Valley - Halloween
The Pink Elephant - Anything Goes
Through the Purple Haze - Halloween

Thanks for stopping by!

Hoppy Halloween

I was away from blogging as the clumsy me got myself in a minor injury in the gym.  Fortunately it was nothing serious and I am recovering slowly.  My body suffers from pain but I think the inconvenience is a bigger pain.  I've learned that while exercise is good I should not push myself too much because even though I was able to finish the program, I was too exhausted to keep my balance then trip over something.  What a joke.

I finally got well enough to do some crafting and I gotta catch up on the Halloween cards for my friends' kids.  This was the first one made:

It was made with a lot of Lawn Fawn goodies - the card base, the Hoppy Halloween stamp set, the Starry backdrops, Sweater Weather die, Grassy border die and Stitched Party Banners die.

Guess what?  I finally tried playing with Copic markers!  I know, I am extremely late to the party.  I am beginning with a tiny collection but am already making a long wishlist for Christmas!  I had so much fun coloring the carrots, the moon and the bunny's cape.  Too bad I only had one grey marker and I had no idea how to color the bunny.  I simply added some shades on him and stuck him down with foam dots to give him some dimension.

I've used distress inks to create the starry sky.  There are four shades of blue: Broken China, Salty Ocean, Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire.  I did the same with the hoppy halloween banner but the gradation of colors is much more obvious in the sky.

Now I gotta go back to make more Halloween cards before it's too late.

I'm entering my card to the following challenges:
613 Avenue - Anything Goes
Addicted to Stamps - Anything Goes
Sentimental Sundays - Too cute to spook
A gem of a challenge - Create a Scene
Crafting At the Weekend - Anything Goes
Pumpkin Spice - Halloween
Sweet Stampin' - Halloween
Treasured Times Stamps - Anything Goes
Fairy Tale Challenge - Halloween
Simply Create Too - Halloween

Thanks for stopping by!

Creating my own PL card

I mentioned yesterday that I have not made an investment on project life yet, as I am just starting out and I have "just more than enough" scrapbooking supplies.  I admit that having one of those 3x4 or 4x6 cards handy for an accent or a journaling box is convenient, but I'll wait and see if I am really into it before I jump on the bandwagon.

When I made this layout I wished I had one of those 4x6 cards ready.  Then the four 4x6 could get the square nice and complete.  I didn't have one so I went to cut one out from the patterned paper.  It turned out just as cute as I would imagine:

Normally I would put another horizontal 4x6 picture to the top right corner, but too bad, I only got three pictures developed.  So I made my own Project Life card as a journaling box in this layout.  I like that the patterned paper has two dangling hearts and it looks so naturally like a readily available Project Life card.

The title of the layout is Brunch at The Park.  I've split it to two rows and cut it in two fonts.  "Brunch at" was die cut with Lawn Fawn's Louie's ABCs dies and "the park" with Lawn Fawn's Cole's ABCs dies.  These two are my favorite alphabet die sets.  These alphabets were die cut from two different sheets of patterned paper in the Sweater Weather collection, but I tried to match "the park" with  the same color as those two dangling hearts and "the brunch" with the square in the middle.  Speaking of which, it was actually trimmed down from another sheet of patterned paper with 3x4 journaling cards.

I always love using patterned paper in the same collection - everything is coordinating and that gives the color-challenged me a big relief. :)

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting!

Scrapbooking & Project Life

Happy Hump Day!

Oops it has been a week since I last posted on my blog.  Where did my time go?  Well, a series of off-site meetings at work is taking quite a lot of my time, making crafting difficult.  Then, for the various times I've tried blogging, I could not even log in.  If I was fortunate enough to log in, I could not upload pictures.  Argh!

Anyway, it seems like everything is finally working just fine.  Want to see my first project life spread?  I know that project life has been around (correction: popular) for quite a while but I have been busy in the card-making department and wasn't really paying much attention to it.  Recently I am getting back to mini-albums and scrapbooking and I thought I could give it a try.     I will be honest that I won't be doing it regularly to document my weekly life.  I wish I had that discipline.  But I think I could try this as part of my scrapbooking process.  I did try it out and I like it.

There are just about millions of project life products on the market.  The only one I got was the sheet protectors.  LOL.  You have no idea how much I was resisting the temptation to buy the gazillions of cute products!  As I am just starting out, I'll try to minimize my purchase.  Further, even though I am really interested in many of the core kits and mini kits, I'd love to use my scrapbooking supplies for project life.  For one, haven't I got more than enough for my layouts?  Secondly, I am not too appealed to the rounded corners of the project life cards.

For my first project life spread, I've chosen pictures I took in September and the cutouts from the new Lawn Fawn Sweater Weather collection:

I totally love these cutouts - they are great accent pieces and journaling cards!  I think I'm supposed to put more journaling cards to the 3x4 pockets?  I opted to cut my 4x6 picture in half and put them in the pockets.  Not bad, huh?

After making this project life spread, I also made a traditional scrapbook page.  It is a picture I took in a Vietnamese restaurant last winter.  The story behind this is that as we had no idea what to order, we told the waiter we wanted that "good looking quiche-looking  dish" on the table behind us.  Try say it fast three times and you know what i mean!  I came to know that it is called Banh Khot:

Sorry about the glare of the photo.  I found a new place at home to take pictures but at this new spot I had to use flash.  I hope you could still see the little pancake cups with shrimps.  It was delish and I had to make a page about it!  I've tried a new thing for the background: I cut the patterned paper into strips and pieced them into chevrons.  It was quite a time consuming process but for a page about Banh Khot?  I think it's absolutely worth it!

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!