I'm back

And of all the days…it just had to be today that the internet connections go cuckoo…hmmph….sabaaaar jak lah. On those days which I’m busy…the connections are perfectly well! Yup, it’s only that when I’m free & have nuthin’ much to do in the office that it decides to just simply goes on “connecting” mode, for what seems like a verrrry verrrry loooong time. How awesomely ironic is that! (eyes rolling).

Well, I know that I’ve not been updating my blog since…err let’s see..9th October! Hah…about a month plus, well almost two! How ‘bout that? :p The word busy hasn’t left me since then. Am constantly swamped with work…gosh. Sue mentioned that she could hear crickets and occasionally a toad croaking in my blog. Hahahaa! It’s a swamp in here and I’m turning into the swamp thing…hehe…not. Well, it’s time to get it spruced up. Forgive me for starting off my blog with a whine. Blame it on the internet weather lah.

Moving on…I’ll share with y’all what I’ve been busy with the past month or so…here goes:-

My first creation for October was a wedding card for Rosty....

Next is a card for Sue, whose birthday was on 14th October. The first one I made was from a group of us friends and another one was the one I made personally for her. :)

One of my favourite cards...hehe. Should've taken her picture with the card...lupa lah...:p

Next are three cards I made for my aunty which she ordered for her three boys...hehe. The first one is for Josh who turned 21 on 19th October. The 2nd card is for Pat whose 24th birthday was on 4th November. Happy birthday, boys! :) And lastly is a card for Nick, who graduated last month. Congrats to ya, Nick!

My next project was a birthday card for Fr. Chua. He is also our FIG 3 choir conductor. Oh, we had a great time in Bandar Seri Begawan last month, where the FIG 3 Choir sang in a concert at St. Andrew's church. We actually planned to celebrate his birthday in Bandar after the concert but the timing tak ngam...so we decided to celebrate when we're back in Miri.

It's so hard to get him to give a decent pose with the card I made, and this is what the picture turned out to be!
Tsk..tsk...Fr. Chua...

Oh dear! p.s. He received a card, 2 chocolate cakes and a box of chocolates!

These two thank you cards/bookmarks were made for our speakers (Ven. Solomon, Fr. Chua & Subdeacon Augsutine) for the Young Adults Weekend Getaway at Soon Hup Villa on 30-31st October. I didn't manage to take a photo of the card I made for Ven. Solomon, though...huhu...tak sempat.

For Live.Love.Craft challenges, Sue and I had four weeks of fun doing cards of the 4 seasons namely Spring, Summer, Autumn & Winter. Here there are:-

Flowery Summery & frosty winter

Springy Spring & Breezy Autumn

And here are another two of my LLC Challenge cards...

This challenge was to use circle punches. This is my orangy bubbly card :)

The next challenge was to include kittens or puppies in our cards. I'm more of a cat person..hehe. So I chose kittens! I took time to colour the picture with colour pencils..hehee. Makes me feel so primary school. ;) Here it is:-

This Saturday, 28th November is my parents' 28th Anniversary! Whoohoo! This year, they have decided to have a party to commemorate the special day. My mum have asked me to make the invitation cards for the event. And guess how many I made? 55 pieces! Incredibly, I managed. Phewh! My mum wanted it to be simple, cream+pink in colour. My dad..ok jerr...no comment, as long ada kad. Hehe. :p

I used a cream coloured backing paper and for the invitation, I used a pink paper which I printed the picture of my parents on their wedding day as the background. And finished it off with two punched hearts at the top.
I should've taken a picture of all the 55 cards I made. Didn't think of it then...darn. :s

Yeeeaaay, I've finally reached the end of today's post...and it's a looong day of waiting & uploading (took me almost the whole day to get here!) and a looong post after a looooong absence.

Feels good to finally update my blog. I'll be back. :D

p/s My apologies for my broken English ..hehe. It's so rojak...i know.

Show & Tell

I've made some crafts & cards after the Raya holidays last month. It's time to show them off..hehe! And each of them has a little story to tell. Here they are...

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First off is a frame I decorated as a birthday gift to my friend Jo. I stamped the words 'Dance', 'Sing', Love', 'Live'...and then handwritten the words below it. Was a bit nervous while writing them down...takut salah spelling, hehe. I decorated it with some pink lace, fabric flowers & acrylics. Love it! :) And I had that feeling again...of having second thoughts to give it away..haha.

Next is my Ice-cream card, which I made for LLC's challenge with 'Food' as the week's theme. I intended to make a cupcake but look what came out from the craft oven....ice-cream! Haha. I used felt & corrugated paper for my ice-cream & a red button to top it off. I actually stamped 'Happy Birthday' at the bottom right of the card...but it bled & got all smudged up. Aiya. The 'birthday' didn't look that happy at all. So what I did was write "Happy Birthday" and paste it onto the stamped image. Tadaa...problem solved. ;)

Lastly, is LLC's this week's challenge. The theme was 'Indian' with henna designs! An idea given by Jo. The first thing that came to my mind was saree! But decided to scrap off the idea...seems a bit difficult. I ended up drawing an elephant (as they are considered very important to the Indian culture, so it fits the Indian theme...i think) & doodled some henna like designs on it. Do you think the look henna-ish? ;)

So there....a lil 'show & tell' session from my craft world. Time to head back home. Enjoy your weekend everyone! Til then, God bless! :)

Two weddings and some Raya cards

The past week or so I was crafty busy making two wedding cards ordered by my friend and ex-colleague, Marianne. One was for her childhood friend who got registered on 09.09.09 and another one for her relative in Canada (if am not mistaken). Here they are... And I also found time to make some Raya cards for my colleagues & friend. I try to make them verrry simple. I made use of the duit raya packets. They're so adorable. I just can't resist. Hehehee. The best thing about this, is that, it didn't take up much time to do! :) The cards all came together with a cake each, which Charles, my colleague, and I bought for them. Didn't get to take their picture with the cakes though...haha.

My Raya creations:

Wishing all my Muslim friends Selamat Hari Raya 2009! Happy & blessed weekend everyone! :)

p/s I'm several hours away to going back to home sweet home Kuching...yaaay! *feelin' goood*

Some like it HOT!

Here it is…..a card I made, specially requested by my friend, Jiahang, for our old buddy (haha), Ray’s birthday! He wanted the card to be naughty or in his terms “kinky”(?!). (Boys will be boys...haih) Hahaha!

I took the challenge. And challenge indeed it was. I have no idea how would this card turn out to be! I’m so used to making cards with pretty stuffs like flowers, ribbons, cute lil’ buttons and such… and now I have to switch mode! Akai. Well, after some brainstorming sessions…I “stormed” out a ‘HOT’ card. Berasap-asap palak pikir...
Well, I like the fire I made, though...hehe. It was free hand…no templates whatsoever. :) I roughed the edges of the card a bit, to give it more texture (can't really see it from the picture, though).

A tough one but I’m well pleased with it! :D Phewh!

Just crafts

Here are some of my crafty updates!

I decorated a photo frame for my mum as her birthday gift. Her birthday falls on 10th August. Instead of putting a photo in it, I typed out a poem for her. Adorned with flowers, buttons, ribbons and a strand of pink pearls. Simply lovely. :) And oh, she loved it!

Next is LLC's challenge to make a Hari Raya card...since Raya is just around the corner...one more week...another holiday..yay yay! I made an untypical (is there such word?) Raya card. Well, the only typical thing about this card is that it's grrrr...een in colour... I think I'll make some more & give 'em to my friends & colleagues. :)

Last week, LLC's challenge was to make a card for kids, given by Sue! I guess, knowing that hers is on the way, it gave her that inspiration for the challenge...hehe! I can't wait! :D Two words that came to my mind when Sue told me about the challenge was 'colourful' & 'fun'! So I came up with a beary colourful & beary fun one. Haha! ;p This is it....

That's all from me! Happy weekend all! ;)

Gettin' stitched!

Hey there! I know I've not been updating for the past week or so..oopsy. I've been away for most of it. And it's been such an eventful week...i don't quite know where to start (gasp!), haha! I guess I'll share about the cards I made recently. One of them is LLC's weekly challenge. Well, this time round, Sue & I agreed to do a card with stitches. Yup, you heard me right! We embraced our stitching skills (well, i think mine kinda berkarat already, hehe) & took up the challenge! Here's mine:

The card is an encouragement card, with the verse taken from Jeremiah 29:11. The inspiration came from the SOMA seminar that I attended recently. During one of the sessions, we were asked to go in pairs & pray for each other. I paired up with Sue. We chose the verse from Jeremiah to focus on during our prayer. This verse has always been a "heart lifter" for me especially on days when it seems so dark & gloomy. It's a great reminder, indeed!

I hope you can see the swirly stitch ;)

I've decided to stitch a swirl on the upper right of the card. I didn't know it was that tough to stitch on paper. It was definately harder than I thought. You really have to be careful & gentle so as not to scrunched up the card...which will only lead to a total disaster! Hehe. Nonetheless, I had fun!

The next card I did was an order from Maggie. She wanted a birthday card for her daddy a.k.a Uncle Hurbert, who turned 57 on 30th August 2009! (did I get the date right, Maggie?) So here it is:

It's one of my favourite creations because of the new thing I've learned....making a folded t-shirt! I found a video on it on youtube & I really liked doing it. Plus it's very cute! Heheh. Here's some close ups...

Well, I guess that's my update for the moment. I would really like to update more, but will find time for that later. Gotta go and look at houses & such for now, haha! (was wishing it would rain so that I wouldn't have to go out, heehee, but it seems that it's NOT happening anytime soon).
Til then, happy peeking! :)

Plain Jane

Hello Thursday! I was up last night burning some "crafty oil" to make LLC's card challenge. Our challenge for this week is to use handmade paper ribbon (Did I get this right, Sue?). This ribbon looks like a strip of twisted paper...hehe...that's how I see it. I, too used it for last week's challenge. ;)

Well this time, I decided to make my card more plain & simple. So I had to put a restraining order on myself as to not putting so much stuffs here & there...as I usually do (gatalnya tangan!), haha! So here's my plain jane...in my pursuit for simplicity..aiseh.

I used the stamp that I bought from Scrap'n'Crop, which I simply adore! And handwritten the word "Celebrate". Thank God, it came out ok, hehe. Was a tad nervous while writing it..takut it will turn out cacat! Plus, I was also afraid that I would get the words all smudgy...(lefties would undertand this ordeal, especially when dealing with inky pens). Phewh!

Some close up shots of the card and my "Celebrate". :)

Alrighty, I guess that's all folks! Happy peeking & enjoy today.

Do you not know...

....it’s mid August already?! Wow! Time does not fly...it zooms! For the past week, I have been busy especially with the SOMA (Sharing of Ministries Abroad) seminar on last Sunday & Monday. I thank God that everything went well (especially with the praise & worship team). :) Phewh! He is indeed a God who provides! And it was also a blessing to have the SOMA team, led by Revd. Titus from Singapore, to come to encourage, give words of wisdom & share their testimonies.

Well, for the past week or so, I’ve made several bookmarks & notebooks. I kinda miss making them…I couldn’t even remember when was the last time I made them as I've been making mostly cards lately! I found time, two weekends back to make some, which Sue & I then sold at our church on Sunday. The sales that we receive go into the youth fund. (Doing a little contributing to the youths eh, hehe). And here they are:-

My bookmarks...

One of my favourites :)

My notebooks...

I’m still figuring out what card to make for LLC’s challenge this week.*scratch head* We’re running a little late this time, as Sue & I were caught up with the seminar for the past two days and by the time we made it home after the seminar, our only agenda was to hit the sack! So, check out the blog tomorrow for our new updates! ;) Plus, I’m figuring out what to make for mummy dearest. Her birthday was last week and I’ll be seeing her in about a week’s time (Yippee! Can’t waaait!) I would like to make something for her as a birthday pressie! Maybe a journal…or a decorated frame…hmm…I’ve yet to decide. Got lotsa brainstorming to do..whooh! Will get ‘em crackin’ tonight! Hehe.

Before I go off, I would like to share these beautiful & encouraging verses, which has helped sustained me the past busy week. Even Revd. Titus quoted this verse (v.31), such a pleasant surprise! :)

28 Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

29 He gives strength to the weary

and increases the power of the weak.

30 Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

31 but those who hope in the LORD

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

~Isaiah 40:28-31~

Thanks for peeking & have a blessed Wednesday!

Oh sleepy day!

It’s LLC’s Tuesday Challenge once more! This week’s theme is to make a card with these 3 colour combination - purple+pink+black. Alvin aka Abinz (Sue’s hubby) threw in the challenge at us. Knowing very well that he’s a fan of anything black, he requested that the cardstock that we are to use was to be black and embellished with the colour pink & purple (sorta emo-ish colour, eh). Here’s my late night turn out:

I was extremely sleepy while doing this card. It was a tiring day for me plus the annoyingly hazy weather didn’t help much either (And I’m still sleepy now! Gulping down 2 mugs of coffee did nothing to give the much needed jolt to my system). I started about 11pm plus last night, which was after I came back from choir practice. Heck, I was already sleepy during choir practice! Fr. Chua made us sing with rounder mouths, which was rather hilarious because it made us look like monkeys when they make their monkey noises...hahah! Uhuh…I sang with rounder mouth alright…yaaaawning away! Good thing, he didn’t see me do that. Thanks to Maggie, she was the “view blocker”. ;) If not, memang kena pukulan hebat on the arm!

Hmm..I think I should've put "Live Laugh Sleep"

Anyways, I’m glad that I didn’t get any “crafter’s block” moments while making the card. The only thing on my mind was “Must. Get. Card. Done. By. Tonight.” ….but it wasn’t all that easy & breezy, as I did have a little frenzied moment where I couldn’t find my acrylics as well as moments where my eyes are constantly drifting towards my comfy lookin' bed. By 12.15am, I was done! But I wasn’t satisfied. (“I can’t get no…satisfaction”, heheh) I don’t know why. It seems like my hands are still itchy to tambah here & adjust there…but was tooo sleepy to do so. :p

So, I left it at that and then crashed my bed, heading off for dreamland.

Thanks for peeking! God bless.

A vision of white

LLC (Live Love Craft)'s theme for this week is WHITE! And this idea was given by my friend, Jo. I guess she's in the "wedding" mood already, as the first thought that came to my mind when she mentioned a white theme, is to make a wedding card! Heheheee... ;)

So here, a wedding card I made for this week. I put a little colour to it...by adding a blue ribbon & used a greyish patterned paper.

~Forever~

I was up late last night to make this one (only had time to start doing after I came back from choir practice and that was about almost 11pm when I got my craft motor running! Eek!).

Initially, I had a picture in my mind of how the card would turn out to be but in the end, it came out totally different from what I've planned! But that's the wonder of making cards! The element of surprise comes by while you're busy creating & getting those pieces together. Sometimes an idea could just pop out of nowhere (an "Ahaa!" moment) & you just follow it by & surprise yourself with what you could do in the end. What delight! ;)