Salam Aidilfitri pop up spiral card

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OK! So here's what happened. Some time ago, I had received some really pretty card stock that I got from a good friend of mine. I'm not really sure what they were for, they looked like wedding invitation card stock or something. I never asked her what it really was. It has this really pretty gold lining on all sides and twin gold heart shape on it.

You can see what it looks like in the photos below. Anyways, I have been wanting to use them for something but didn't have an idea back then of how to use them until recently I came up with the idea to recycle them as Raya cards. It doesn't necessarily need to be a Raya card. It can be used as any type of card for any occasion. But I decided to put a Raya sentiment inside so that I can use it myself to give to my loved ones this year. :D

On the inside of the card, once it is folded, you can see like an impressed image of the twin hearts....I really love it! So even though, I don't get to use the twin gold hearts on the outside as part of the decoration on the card, at least I get to see it on the inside.

Oh yeah, one more thing....I got this beautiful pattern papers from her as well. The papers are actually paper scraps that I received in different sizes. I couldn't use them for big projects, so I thought the idea of cutting them this way like small size washi tapes and pasting them on the card as a background design would be a great way to recycle them. I don't have a lot of washi tapes, so using scraps of pattern paper such as this in this technique would be great! And it's so simple too!

The Malaysian quilling flower! Gosh, I haven't been making these in ages! So it was a little awkward trying to make them again after a while, but I quickly got the hang of it after a few tries. They are so much fun to make and pretty too. Definitely not that difficult to make either. You can find a tutorial on how to make them on my YouTube channel and give a go if you are interested to make them yourself.

 

See all those teeny tiny paper dots?? Those are paper dots that I got whenever I use one of my craft punch. I was reluctant to throw them away and they make great background decorations if you know how to use them :).

These are some spiral pop ups I made for the pop up that I plan to paste inside the card. They are probably one of the easiest pop ups that I can make. Simple and fun to look at. :) Once I've cut them up, all that was needed to do was to just past the spiral pop ups with flowers and sentiment. I really enjoyed making this card as I can to recycle all the materials that I had in my craft room. I don't like keeping scraps of papers or card stocks in the room for too long. Need to make way for new materials and have fun experimenting with new ideas. Do check out the video of the card below. You can have an idea of how the spiral pops up inside card! :)

3 tier pop up birthday cake card

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Just recently I made a handmade birthday card for a good friend of mine whom I've known for many years. We were room mates when we were studying in ITM. I had wanted to do this for her for quite a while now. Planning and planning but the plan didn't work out as it should and in the end I had to post the card to her instead of giving it to her by hand. I guess God had something else planned for me on that day. I'll just have to make another plan! haha! :D What matters is that she loved the card so much and that really is all I could ask for. To make her happy even if it was just for a day :).

OK! Back to the card! I came across some really nice DIY pop ups at a stationery store recently and I was really excited about it since I love pop ups so much. I never knew they sell these things! I've never seen them before. So you can surely imagine my excitement. Hahaha! Unfortunately, the choices that they had were quite limited. I wish they had more.

Usually I would make the pop ups myself from scratch but I thought it would be nice to once in a while use a ready made one instead for my handmade cards. It's so convenient especially if you are in a hurry to get a card done for someone's birthday. You can also add some personal touch to it if you like to make it different from the original design. But if not, you can just use it as it is.

It was not that difficult to fit the pop up birthday cake in my handmade card as I am quite familiar with the mechanics of the pop up. So it was easy peasy for me. Besides, they do have some photos in the package that explains how to fit the pop up inside the card. 

I also did something I've never done before with quilling flowers. A difference in technique in this case. Usually when I add more than one colour to each petal, it's mostly done using the combing technique.....but for this one I used the slotted quilling tool instead. Perhaps I should consider making a tutorial on how to get that effect on quilling flowers and leaves. If there is a demand for it....or not....I just have to find the time to do it. :)

Another different thing I did was sewing all around the decoration with multicoloured embroidery threads. No cross-stitch this time....just plain straight line. That was really fun! It created a texture on the card and a colourful background that would match the decorations. The gold painted soft clay that was pressed with a birthday sentiment was something new for me to experiment on with what I can do with soft clay. It reminded me of what I used to do with real clay back when I was studying ceramics. Gosh I missed it all so much!

Do check out the pop up birthday cake at the video below and you'll be able to see how it pops up in the card. :)

Seven flowers pop up birthday card

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Way back in 2009, I made my first 7 flowers pop up. It was for a Chinese New Year card. I remembered how excited I was to see all the 7 flowers pop up each time I opened the card. I felt as giddy as a school girl. Back then, in my mind I thought that this pop up was the most difficult of all to make. But now I know, there are others types that are much much more difficult to make compared to this one.

There were little flowers and leaves added to the 7 flowers pop up to make it look like a bouquet of flowers. I didn't want to leave it plain and simple. I just had to add other things to the flowers to make it look more fancy. What do you think? Did it work? heheheheh!!!

I guess that this is the first time for me to use the Teary Loop flowers for my handmade card. I made a tutorial on how to make the flower long time ago and uploaded the video on YouTube, but never used them for any of my cards until now. In the tutorial, I made a small version of it, but for this card, I made the small and large version of it combined as a flower. I like the way it looks, either single or double.

The previous birthday card I made had cross-stitch on it too, where I used 4 different types of colour threads. In this one I only used two colours but had them stitched side by side. I love this idea and will probably use this idea for future cards. The cross-stitch took such a long time to sew on the paper but at the end of the day, the results made me so happy. 

Another thing I would like to mention here is the gold frame that I added to the card. I made it myself using a hard board. After cutting it up, I painted it with a gold colour to make it look fancy. I framed the washi tapes and patterned paper with this frame and decorated it with the flowers and sentiments. The rhinestones simply added some bling bling to it and made it look fancier than before. I just love how it all turned out.

This birthday card was made for someone who is very dear to me. I really hope she likes it. I know that she looks forward to receiving my handmade cards every year, but I sometimes don't have the time to make one for her. I'm so happy that this year, I can. Hey, even handmade card designers have problem sending cards to their loved ones, I kid you not! Hahaha!!

Do check out the video of the card below so you can view how to flowers pop up inside the card. Enjoy!

Green theme quilled wedding signage

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Alhamdulillah....thank you Allah for blessing me for the strength and energy to finish this project. I'm so thankful too to get a customer who is so patient and understanding. For her kind patience, I am able to finish this order in time before her wedding day which is coming soon this week.

I admit I am pretty late at completing this order, but still I'm glad I did it before the due date. You have no idea how I had to struggle to finish it. I haven't been quilling for more than 2 months and it was kinda awkward to start again. Felt a bit rusty hahaha.....but after a little practice I was ready again to start the project. 

This design for this wedding signage was actually inspired by one of my swing cards that I did this year. You can view it at the link HERE. My customer just loved the design so much and wanted me to use the same design for her wedding signage. 

The original design on the swing card, you can see that the leaves were made from die-cut patterns. So since she loves quilling so much, she wanted me to do the leaves using the quilling technique. I've never done something like that before....so it was fun to be able to try that. And I love the outcome :).

All in all, I'm really glad I did this project no matter how I felt. Not sure when I will be quilling again though....because I'll be busy after this with sewing beads project! hehehe! Yes....it's a little wedding project that I was entrusted to do for someone. Will do an update on it probably on my FB page.....will see how it goes. ;)

Here is a photo of my customer and her husband on their wedding day with the wedding signage I made....photo was taken by Zulhilmi Photoworks....click on the link to see their other beautiful wedding photos ;)

A gift for an old friend

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My Mom requested me to make a special birthday card for her friend who will be celebrating her birthday today. But I decided not to make her a card, I made her a Japanese hand-bound book instead! hehe! Since I'm really into it right now, so I thought it would be nice to make one for her since I know how much she appreciates craft work so much.

I used another one of the Japanese pattern paper that I got from Wholeport.  I love the colours and the design of the paper a lot. I didn't want to keep the cover empty, so I decorated it with a simple quilling flower design on it with a die-cut pattern design on the background. I like the colour of the flower because it's a combination of two different colours, which is red and maroon.

I used to love making beaded bookmarks a lot.....I got so many beads in my collection, so I'm glad I can use them when making this hand-bound book. It's nice to get to do it again even though it's just a simple one for this book compared to the more complicated ones I've done before.

I'm so glad my my Mom's friend loves the book so much. She already has plans on what to use it for. And I'm so happy to know that it's for something good. Alhamdulillah. I managed to make one more person very happy today. ;)

A combination of something old and new....

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Ok....I gotta admit.....I have used this purple floral pattern paper for my handmade cards more than once! In fact I've used it twice already. And now for the 3rd time I'm using the same ones. Have a look at the link HERE and HERE to view the older designs of tri-shutter cards that I have made using the purple floral pattern paper.

In this design I have actually combined some of the old designs from the other tri-shutter cards I've made and turned it into something new. Made some changes here and there and walla! It's done and I gotta say that this is my favourite among the three designs.

This is the first time I tried to make the double bow using a 1/8 inch satin ribbon. I saw a tutorial on how to make it on Youtube. I never knew how simple it is to make it until I saw the tutorial. Gosh, I've got a lot to learn! There's so many great tutorials on Youtube.....I just need to find time to view them all hehe!

Another part of the card that I thought was nice are the white polka dots on the dark purple textured paper. I punched out some white paper dots and glued them one by one on the dark purple textured paper. I love how the dots can make such a difference on the look of the card. It just changes everything don't you think so? :)

One other thing that I like about the card is the colour of the distress ink which I blended on all sides of the tri-shutter card to give a dark walnuty shade behind the pattern paper. I just love doing that for my tri-shutter cards these days.

You can have a look at the tri-shutter card and see how it opens up and closes from the video below:

Alphabets in photo frames

QF002 (With alphabets)

Look familiar? Yes, it's an old design but with a new twist to it :). There is a slight addition to it as per request from my dear customer. Yes, I've added some foam alphabets and a multicoloured quilled heart to it. Actually,  I was supposed to make quilled alphabets. But unfortunately I'm still not good at making them huhuhuu... :(. I've tried a few times but failed because the alphabets that I tried to make were a bit too small. Perhaps if it was a little bigger in size, I would be able to do it. I'm still not good at it yet >.<. Must practice more!

I had no problem remaking the quilled flower arrangements on the photo frame except for the quilled alphabets. Thank God I had those foam alphabets at hand. They really saved the day! hehehe! Lucky for me, my customer didn't mind it at all when I wanted to use them for the frames. She is so sweet!! ;) This is the first time I'm using the foam alphabets. I bought them some time ago so that I can use them for my handmade cards but in the end, I used them for these photo frames instead. Perhaps one day I'll use them for my handmade cards. I still have no new ideas yet for that. It will come to me soon.....the ideas will come....I just don't know when...... hahahahaha :D.

Quilled Sunflower photo frame

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I got a request from a customer who wished for me to make a quilled sunflower photo frame for her dear Mother who happens to LOVE Sunflowers A LOT! hehe! At first I was a bit reluctant to take this order since I've never done any Sunflower arrangement before on cards or photo frames.....I was a little afraid of what the outcome would be like. I don't have any special quilled Sunflower pattern....just a simple one except that this time I thought of giving it a little different touch to the flower  here and there.

I used to make the middle part of the sunflower black in colour but this time I decided to use dark chocolate paper strips instead......and the yellow ochre quilling strips that I used to make the petals were given some orange ink shade to it to make it a little different from what I've done before.

It's the first time for me to make quilled leaves that is big and rounded like that.....using 3 marquis shaped quilling shape and joined them together to form the shape of a big rounded shaped leave.....I was trying to make a leaf that looks like a sunflower leaf......hehehe :D

But what I love the most about this quilled sunflower frame is the LADYBUGS!!! I just love them! I found a tutorial in Pinterest on how to make them last May and I immediately gave it a try. I made a few of them but never got a chance to use them on my artwork until now. At the time I learned how to make them, I didn't have a special craft punch to make those tiny little dots on the ladybugs. But I managed to get the craft punch  later on and was able to glue those tiny dots on them just like how the tutorial showed. It's not that difficult to make either. I definitely love making this pattern more than the usual quilled ladybugs pattern I've made before. <3

Have a look at the video I made of the quilled sunflower frame below....get a closer look at it :)

Mummy, Daddy and baby bird

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Here it is! The birthday card that my customer ordered for her husband's birthday together with the quilled blue flower frame.

Actually if you look at it closely, this design looks familiar right?? Well, that's because it's originally a design I recreated from my old design, V042. In that design, there are only 2 love birds, but in this one, my customer requested that I put a little baby bird in the middle to represent her first born. It's so cute! I rarely make little birdies like that so it was fun to make one that small. For the branch, I decided to make a long one so that I can fit all 3 birds together on it, like one happy family :).

One thing I loved about making this card this time is the fact that it has a new kind of envelope. I saw on YouTube the other day on how to make box envelopes using the scoring board and I'm just super excited about it! hehe! How can I not be excited about it right?? It's super cool that now I can make my very own special envelopes for my quilled cards....something that fits them perfectly, no more worries about whether or not the quilling will spoil the envelope or visa versa etc etc etc....bla bla bla.....yup, no more worries about all that. Problem solved.  And of course the envelopes are made using thicker paper too to protect the quilling design. ;)

But still, I prefer to give quilled handmade cards by hand instead of posting them to my loved ones. It's a lot more thrilling to watch their happy reactions when they received the cards from me. Priceless! :)