Love themed birthday swing card

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Another swing card design for this month. It's a birthday card this time. A lot of dark red and green combination with this one. In fact I think there's quite a lot of red going on here! hehe!

I wanted to use the big wooden flower bead that I got last year as the focal point of the card. The one and only stock I have! haha! I guess this card is a combination of a lot of things that are limited in my collection. Some were given....some were bought. The ones that were given, was kept for quite a while with me because I adored them too much to use them..... But I can't keep them with me for too long ....I have to use them some day right? Otherwise, there will be too many craft stock inside my room and very little space left for me to do work there.

There were some parts of the card where I applied some molding paste. Flower patterns this time around seemed suitable since there are a lot of flower designs on the pattern paper itself. I enjoyed decorating the card using molding paste although it is quite a messy type of craft. But seeing the pattern formed on the paper somehow thrills me :D. Textures gives the card a different feeling. Hence, more molding paste artwork projects coming this year.

Played with a couple of clear stamps that I bought from Popular Bookstore. They seem to sell a lot of new cool designs there now. Super cheap too! I couldn't resist buying them every time I visit the shop. In fact I just bought some new ones yesterday. Ooooppppps! There goes my budget this year!! LOL! They also sell a lot of pretty acid free pattern papers. Very affordable as well. I like that very much!! :D Hope it stays that way for a long time hahaha!

Card in a box #3

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You must be thinking.....hmmmmm.....this design looks familiar, right? Well, of course it does because it's the same design I made for my first card in a box card last month. The only difference is the colour of the box which I had to change because my customer wanted a card that is in a red and black combination.

Actually I didn't have a red and black pattern paper with a similar design of stars on it. So I had to create my own with the red and black paper. The stars were handcut and pasted on the card one by one. Slow process but at least I get to do a similar pattern as the original design.

I also ran out of the 3D pop up stickers. Huhhuhu!!! So sad about that. The shop never restock them. Searched every where in Alor Setar but couldn't find it. So if anyone were to order this card again, I would have to figure out a replacement for those 3D pop up stickers.

I really enjoyed making card in a box.....they are so much fun! Do check out the video I made of this card. You can see how it opens up. Thank you! ;)

My first Card in a box!

I was taking some time off from work the other day, because I've been working like crazy since January with not much time to rest and I started browsing for new type of cards to make and I suddenly thought of making a card in a box. Been dying to make one ever since I saw them on Pinterest some time ago.

Sometimes I just need some other diversions to keep the mood for cardmaking going and keep on going. Because I'm the type who gets bored easily. Since I've been making a lot of swing cards already, so it was high time I change things a bit to give me some excitement.

From the time I saw the designs of the card in a box in Pinterest, I always thought that it was difficult to make. I figured it was the most complicated card I've ever seen. And it never occurred to me that we can actually fold it flat and insert it in an envelope. But when I saw the video tutorial on YouTube, I was blown away by the trick! What a fancy trick it was! That was what got me into this so instantly. I just had to make one the minute I saw the video. :)

I bought some fancy birthday 3D Pop up stickers recently and thought of using them for my first card in a box experiment. The pattern paper were given to me by a good friend of mine, Sandi Staley. Gosh I have loads of scrap pattern papers from her to use up for my card experiments! hehehe! ^.^

 Compared to other types of cards, this particular one involves decorating on almost all parts of the card. So it's quite a lot of paper to paste here and there...a lot of decoration to do to make it attractive. And since it will have a 3D look once opened, you gotta think of how it will look 360 degrees...all angles. The challenge makes me more driven to complete the card.

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Do check out the video I took of the card so you can see how it transforms from a flat card to a box with pop ups in the center! That would perhaps get you excited to create your own first card in a box soon! ;)

New Baby Girl swing card

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A combination of the old and new indeed. Because for this card, it has at the front part of the card, a newborn baby girl design that I did long time ago. The only difference is the material used for making it. In the previous design, I made it using foam sheets but for this one, I used felt. You can see below how I sew the eyes with a dark brown thread for the little baby.

The card has a few 3D fancy stickers on it which is in my opinion is so cute! I got them at Tesco. They are not that expensive and the design is lovely. I couldn't help myself from buying it. I do have a similar design for new baby boy too. So I will definitely use them soon for another new baby card.

 I love the off white floral lace trim from WholePort.....it looks really cute combined with the colourful pastel buttons. I didn't use a lot of items from WholePort for this card, just the lace and the embroidery thread for sewing the felt and paper. I just love using the embroidery thread. The colours are so pretty and it has a shine to it that makes it looks so fancy. Easy to sew on paper too. :)

Overall I had fun making this one. With a candy theme colour combination, it makes the card look sweet and warm. The Dymo embossing label maker was a fun gadget to use too for making the wordings for the card. I kinda enjoy using it nowadays. I guess I need to get more colours too as I only have black and red colour labels at the moment. ^.^

Do check out the video below of the card in motion.....I love the sounds of the birds in the background chirping away so happily in the garden. I guess they were excited to see the card too hhihihiihihi!! ;D

Elephant and Horse theme birthday card

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I've said it before.....I'm not good at making cards for men. But I wanted to challenge myself when asked for the second time around from my customer to make a birthday card for her hubby that has an elephant and a horse in it. 

The elephant represents my customer and the horse represents her hubby. I was given full freedom to design the card. The time given to complete it was more than enough..... in fact, she gave me ample time to think it over and get it done. I took such a long long time to do it because the idea did not appear when it should have....if you know what I mean! hehe! 

At last I finally got it done. A lot of technique came to mind when thinking of how to do the animals.....but in the end I decided to go with felt as it is easy to draw on and form the shape of the animals.

I loved using distress ink to enhance the look of the card. It makes such a huge difference if the distress ink is used compared to when it's not. It's something that I can seem to let go of when making cards nowadays. I also fancy the designer papers that I chose for this card. I'll bet my friend Sandi Staley would recognize the papers since she was the one who gave them to me to play with! ehehe!

All in all I'm glad that my customer is so very patient with me.....I wish I am much more creative in thinking of new ideas for custom orders in future so that my customers wouldn't have to wait such a long time for me to get a card done. I'm so relieved that she loved the card so much. That really made my day! ;)

Little girl's birthday swing card

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I almost gave up a few days ago. I wonder if my customer felt the same too at that time. She had to wait a long time for this card to be completed because I had a pretty difficult time getting an idea for it! It looks like a simple design right? Nothing that complicated. But sometimes I can't even think of a simple design....hahahaha! I always wanna complicate things. Indecisive too! But in the end.....the card looks simple anyways! LOL! :D Sometimes what I planned to do comes out differently from what I had in mind. It always does. I'm just super relieved that my customer is very happy with the results! :D

This pink theme girlish birthday swing card is made especially for my customer's 8 year old daughter. Her name is Fatin (if I'm not mistaken) ;). She is very much interested in card making, quilling etc. I was so surprised when her mother told me about her passion for crafting. It makes me really happy to know that at that young age, she already knows what she wants and what she is passionate about. She had already told her mother that she wishes to learn about crafting from me someday......awwwwww.....how sweet! Hopefully someday she and I can meet up and have fun crafting....in shaa Allah....God willing.... :). 

I used a lot of sponge stickers for this card.....just like how my customer wanted it. She wanted something like the birthday card that I did in my first swing card....but since that card was meant for a boy , so I had to make some changes with the colours and motifs since this card is for a girl. She also mentioned how much her daughter loves pink! So pink it is all over! With a little white, soft yellow and purple combination. :)

I wanted so badly to use the die-cut letters of Happy Birthday on the card. I tried to arrange them, but they won't fit in if they are arranged in a straight line!! So I had to arrange them in a way that all of them can fit in one space. Even though they are not in a straight line, I kinda like looking at them randomly arranged that way.... :D As long as you can read it, then its all good! :D

I love the paper balloons! This is the first time I'm using them! I bought the balloon motif craft punch so long ago and only thought of using it now for this card. Kinda nice not having to cut out my own paper balloons hehehe.....I kinda wish I have a bigger balloon craft punch now.....coz it's super nice to use for birthday cards!

Have a look at the video of the card below for a closer look at the card and how it swings in motion! :)

Pop up roses card

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I got a request from my dear little sis to make a birthday card for her hubby. Although her hubby's birthday has already passed but she insisted that I make a birthday card for her dearest because she is still in confinement ( she just delivered a baby boy a few weeks ago)....and couldn't go out to get something that would be suitable for him. So I just couldn't say no to this one. Luckily I was given full freedom to design it anyway I like it except that she did made a little request and that was that the card has to be all white in colour because her hubby loves that colour so much and must have a bouquet of roses inside it.  Luckily I was allowed to add some silver to it as it is one of her favourite colour as well other than white. Hmmm looks like both wife and hubby has the same favourite colour...white! I love white too :).

I've never made pop up roses before so I didn't know how at first to make them. I'm not that good at drawing the flowers either. It was just a spontaneous thing and was very quick and easy rose design. The white vase pop up was something new for me to try as well from my pop up book. One of the easy pop up vases project that I tried to make from the book.

The wordings I made on the card were hand carved using a craft knife. It was a bit tricky to carve them because the paper I used were quite thick. Those white and silver paper were a gift from my dear friend Sandi Staley that I received some time ago. Love them so much! :) Have a look at the video below ;) 

Stamping and quilling

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I had been busy during the fasting month cleaning up my studio. It looked so darn messy for the past few months. I could barely walk around it as there were just too many stuff lying on the floor, on the table...there were just too many stuff everywhere! Such a mess. I wonder how I was able to work in such a condition sometimes. One day, I just couldn't take it anymore and had to get it all cleaned up and organized. Finally after a few days, I managed to get it done and was surprised to find things that I thought were lost.....well, I thought they were lost....but actually there were in the same studio....just hidden under loads of stuff that I had been piling up inside.

While I was cleaning the room and organizing some of my craft products, I felt a little guilty because I just realised that I have some craft products that I haven't even used. I bought some over the years and some that were given to me as gifts but I never got to use them. All kept nicely hidden in boxes and drawers. All forgotten. I guess it has something to do with my little obsession with quilling that took over everything. But now I think I should try to combine quilling with the other techniques or at least try to use those products that I bought so that it would not get spoiled over the years. 

That's how this new card design came about....coz I was thinking of using up all my rubber stamps and ink pads that I have in my collection. This card is a mini one...just a small cute card. I love making small cards these days. Perhaps coz it's faster to get them done...hehehe! So this is just a start.....to get warmed up :). I made a few of this card design to keep as stock. I need to make more stock for other occasions as well. Hope to keep this high spirit up for at least till the end of the year. So much to get done and experiment with! >.< wooohooooo!!