B is for Bali

B for BALI

Hello, dear blogger buddies, these are the flowers I made while I was holidaying in Bali... and ofcourse I swam and had lots of fun in the pool and by the beach. For once I did  not eat like a pig - instead ate soups and salads to help my flab from getting flabbier!

More flowers... crazy me... but my blogger friends will understand.

I cannot show you pictures of Bali because yours truly has misplaced the charger for the camera!!! Doh! These pics have been taken on my mum's camera (she is visiting us).

Beautiful handmade roses by Helen

It is midnight, rather past midnight and I am still blog hopping and surfing... it is addictive, to say the least. I better go to bed after this post.

I had to share this exciting information that I happened to stumble upon -

I came across Helen's blog -
www.helenmade.blogspot.com/ while I was at Michelle's . I was delighted to see that on the left she has a rose making tutorial...

For those of you who are as crazy as me about making flowers, do visit her blog.

I have been struggling to post a flower making tutorial myself but I think it may take me a few years to get there... just kidding! :) I need to get more savvy at blog stuff.

Good night for now, my dear blog buddies.

Love,

Monica

Make it Monday Linky party

The credit for this card goes to my blogland buddies (Loraine in particular who gave me the blog address of the lady who made these flowers, which I have sadly misplaced) and You tube tutorials.  Sorry, Loraine!

You could see one of the tutorials here. Sorry, I am still not good at all this... I'm afraid, still learning...

When you reach this site, go to tutorials on the top right and look for spiral roses.

I have made the yellow flowers by swirling them and ofcourse some trial and error.

The leaves have been cut manually from crepe paper. The green stamp on the background is from Hero Arts. I have coloured the pot ( made from Sizzix mini die cuts) brown with crayons to make it look natural. Ran over the edges of the card with green Versa stamp pad.

Am entering this for Michelle's Make it Monday Linky party.

Handmade flowers

Oh, me and my famous handmade flowers... I just don't seem to stop!!!

This paper was given by my daughter's Japanese friend and I love it. The leaves at the bottom have been punched out from my Carla craft mini punch. Have added pop up glitter glue to the flower centres to make it look more attractive.

Instead of making cards, all I do these days is make flowers, flowers and more flowers!!!

Embossed tea pots

I have manually embossed these teapots with a stencil from Spotlight. The flowers on the bottom right have been made by yours truly... while the blue flowers on the top left have been cut out from a ribbon.
I ran over the teapots with chalk and glitter glue (which is not visible inspite of using hubby's camera).
I wish my blog friends lived close enough so that we could sometimes share a cuppa together.
Never mind, I am lucky enough to know such a wonderful bunch of ladies... and that is enough to be grateful for, I guess.

Embossing - dry stencil embossing

I have dry embossed this card with brass stencils and coloured it with pearlised chalks. Then I gently ran over the teapot and cups with glitter glue and metallic pens. 
It looks better in person... thanks to my poor camera. :(
To fill in the empty space at the bottom I have used the Mary Engelbreit teapots punch.
Manual embossing can be a bit laborious sometimes... but the end results are always fun.

Penny Black Stamp - Triple play

My daughter and I loved this Penny Black stamp the moment we saw it. She stamped it on white card stock and coloured it with her Maped pencils. She is much better at stamping than I ever will be... 
I adorned it with paper from Hallmark and some ribbon from my stash.  Another attempt at making a boy's card.

Partly recyled again - gift wrap and wall paper

The inspiration for this card has come from one of the quick makes I saw at Sandra's blog when I visited it for the very first time. Thank you, Sandra...


 I have die cut the hearts from Sizzix and guess what I have used to make the hearts? The silver paper has been recycled from gift wrap while the creamy hearts have been die cut from a beautiful wall paper roll I bought for barely 2 or 3 pounds in a hardware shop in the suburbs of London.  To make it look posh, I used pearlised baby blue card stock - which sadly cannot be seen in this image.


The hearts at the bottom have been punched using Carla craft minis. It looks much better in person as the pattern on the wall paper cannot be seen in this poor image. What a pity!

Some cards for charity requested by Charity Crafter

Hi, dear blogger pals, this is one of the many cards that my mum made. She always manages to make cards for me to sell.  It will go to http://www.gsdlifeline.com/ which is a UK based charity that supports dogs. This was in response to Leigh (www.charitycrafter.blogspot.com/) who requested if cards could be donated to this charity.

This is a bunch of 20 cards - all packed with matching envelopes in individual plastic seal bags that I will be sending to the above charity. Sorry the picture quality is not very good. 

Am soooo.... excited!!! :-) 

Award from Sandra

I am so delighted to receive this sweet , sweet award from Sandra

I feel honoured and so motivated - infact I was on a high yesterday and my ten year old daughter could notice it. It is my first award so it is extra special.

Now I better follow the rules pertaining to this award:

1. Thank the person who gave you this award - Sandra - http://www.rosepetalcreations.blogspot.com/
It means the world to me because it is my first award from such a lovely person.

2. Put it on your blog - which I have.

3. List three things about yourself:

I am addicted to paper and card making.
I enjoy having my charity card sales.
I love visiting other blogs and looking at the wonderful creations.

4. Post a favourite picture:

5. Pass this award to 5 other bloggers. I would like to pass this on to:

Amanda

Dallas

Lorraine

Terry

Jennifer

Thank you, my dear blogger pals for making me richer and happier!

Thank you Sandra and Leigh

Today was a very special day for me because I received two awards... the first one was from Sandra and the other from Leigh . Thank you for making my day and making me feel on top of the world. Making cards anyway puts me on top of the world but receiving awards is like the cherry topping on a cake.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for thinking of me.

Partly recycled

The gifts on this card are recycled from old wrapping paper which I cut out and painted with glitter glue. The three gems on the right are from the UK - cannot remember the brand. The metallic flowers are from my stash.

Card for men

I made this card last night using a vingtage car stamp. I lack ideas for making cards for men at most times... I literally have to struggle!!!
The green and the blue strips are made of cloth  which I recycled. The green embossed paper is handmade from India.

One hundred percent handmade

I am so chuffed because yesterday I tried making these roses (or whatever) by myself after watching You Tube tutorials and other bloggers. 

The big voilet flower was die cut from Sizzix and the small flowers were made with Carla craft punch. The lilac distressed effect was done while playing with paints with my two and a half year old daughter. The pinkish mauve paper at the bottom is handmade paper that I bought at a handicraft exhibition in India.

This picture is a close up of the flowers... sorry there is shadow on the picture.  My love affair with scrunchie flowers continues...

Bird punch card

I love this bird punch - it is fairly popular with my kind customers. I stuck violet paper under the bird and pink under the flowers. Green went under the branch. That was more time consuming than I thought.

Scrunchie flowers

This was my daughter's handiwork with scrunchie flowers... The paper is from Card making and Papercraft. The pink flower looks prettier in real.

This lace is almost 90 years old... my great grandfather bought it from Europe. I found it lying in one of my treasure boxes and decided to use it... The paper is handmade from India. The centre of the scrunchie flower has been made from a tiny bit of loofah!!

More scrunchie flowers... I seem to have gone overboard with them!

My daughter picked this stamp from Hobby Craft in London this summer. I thought it was very appropriate for wine lovers. ;)

Paisley with scrunchie flowers

I seem to have fallen in love with these scrunchie flowers. Thanks again to all the inspiration from my lovely blogland pals and You Tube tutorials. This card is made on handmade card stock from India. The green paper is actually packing paper that we used when we moved to Indonesia. I gave it a distressed effect with my children's paints and my greenVersa stamp pad. The dried leaf is from Prague where we were this summer. I don't think I should have used metallic gel markers on the leaf. It makes it synthetic!!! :(
I fell in love with this cow stamp at the first instant...

Magenta flowers

I have made the scrunchie flowers from Sizzix and Carla craft punches. A lot of credit for shaping these flowers goes to my blogland buddies as well as You Tube tutorials. Thank you all - I love the new look of my punched flowers.

Quick makes - ladybugs

These two cards are quick makes... The red flower stickers are left overs from a pack while the lady bug is a cut out from wrapping paper. The best wishes stamp is so tiny - am not too pleased with that. Used glitter glue and pop up glue to jazz it all up.

The lady bug is from the same wrapping paper as the card above. The Happy Birthday stamp looks more decent, I think. :)

Tissue paper and food colour

The yellow tissue paper was hand dyed by my daughter with vegetable dyes. The punches are from Carla Craft.

These flowers were punched on shimmery tissue and card stock from Sizzix minis. They have been pasted on pearlised and crinkled handmade paper.

Dragonflies

I am trying to learn rubber stamping... My daughter seems to be much better at it. I sometimes leave out vital details in the stamp while she gets it right at the first go! I find this word stamp so meaningful.

Heart with rose

I used a heart shaped sponge as a stamp on black Crayola paper. The heart was hand torn and the rose was made by yours truly. Sorry, the picture is horizontal while it actually should have been vertical.

Vintage car

This was one of my first tries with distress ink. A bit too green, I'm afraid. I will get better with time!! The vintage car stamp is from Funstamps from Hobbycraft in London and so is the plastic mosaic. Yet another attempt at a card for a man!! :)

Doll with ribbons

I made this card for a six-year-old girl's birthday. The blue rose was made by me. It looked really bland initially so I kept adding lace and different kinds of ribbons till it look dressy enough.

Quick make - lock and key

This lock and key sticker was bought from a cheap store that sells wrapping paper and stickers. It came in a set of five. I am left with only two now and when I went looking for more there were none!! :( The foil is from my kitchen and the square blue paper is a post-it. It sold off for 2 dollars in my last charity sale.

Quick make - champagne bottle

I bought these stickers from a museum shop in Prague. They look far more shimmery in real life. The pearlised green paper was created by painting ordinary paper with pearl paint that belonged to my daughter. I crushed it to give it a distressed look.

Fabric and wool

The circular shaped patches have been recycled from fabric. A lady bought this card at my last sale. It somehow looked much better in real life.

Circles and squares

Here is another effort at making a unisex card. Have used different textures and punched out circles and squares. Too childish for the highly advanced artists of blogland... but it was fun to make it.

Dog with flower and lace

Hello, all you lovely artists in blogland. Here is a card that my daughter stamped and coloured with Marvy brush markers. I stuck it on brown card stock. The distressed effect was my first try with distress ink that was gifted to me on my birthday. The lace is not really matching but I always seem to suffer from this great urge to use it... ;) And sometimes it is misplaced!!!

Girl with dog

This card was made by my 10 year old daughter Zeenya, for one of her friends. She felt that the card was not too birthdayish so she rummaged through my drawers and found the blue balloons. She coloured everything in with Maped colour pencils and I helped her paste the ribbon.

Quilled card

Another quilling card. My quilled cards sell off the quickest! So they are worth the hard work. The flowers are made out of parchment paper while the leaves have been cut manually out of light card stock.

Scrunchie flowers

The inspiration for these scrunchie flowers came from Loraine... she was kind enough to forward me the tutorial. I did improvise a bit though.

Thank you, Loraine. You are so kind coz' you always visit my blog and leave such lovely comments.

Word stamp card

I made this card on shimmery blue card stock. The purplish blue paper was made by my daughter - she randomly scattered powder purple and blue powder paint and sprayed it with water. She sprinked glitter on top and it just looked so bright and tempting...

The stamp is new - I am trying my hand at rubber stamping.

Gift wrap

This was a gift that I wrapped in plain Ikea gift paper and dressed it up with flowers that I made. It was a farewell gift for a very special friend who is relocating back to her country... I will miss her sorely. Inside is a Parker pen with my friend's name inscribed on it.

Picture of charity sale

These are some of my beautiful customers who bought my cards in the charity sale on the 26th of May. As I mentioned earlier, children are my big all time customers. Thank God for angels on earth. The sale went pretty well and with the proceeds we managed to buy stationery items for 180 poor children in a primary school in Indonesia.

One highlight was the cookie jars that I took along with me... oatmeal and chocolate bikis. And the children loved them (ofcourse only the choco ones!) Nobody except adults touched the oatmeal cookies. It was such fun to offer cookies for no reason at all!!! :) Never mind the fact that the bikis only helped encouraged the sale.

Decoupage table mat

This was one of my first decopage

creations... this is a table mat. I enjoyed learning decopage immensely. It was fun to meet so many like minded people. :)

Baby boy card

This card looks much better in real life. I punched a big circle using a giant craft punch from a beautiful blue and off white wall paper.

Quick make - yellow wall paper

I made this card with a wall paper sample and dressed it up with ceramic jewellery beads and metallic pens.

Orange and Gold Ethnic Motif

Sorry, the picture quality is not too good here.

This is an ethnic stencil from India.

I have highlighted the motif with a gold pen and have sponged acrylic paint in gold and orange around the motif.

The brown paper is hand torn and has been recycled from packaging material.

This birthday card is feminine as usual... I am still trying hard to make cards for men and boys.

The cake is from Sizzix minis and the tiny pink flowers are from Carl craft punches.

I think I need to invest in a new camera - the picture quality is not as nice as the real card itself.

I thought I should make a colourful baby card since I live in Indonesia. So I made the pram out of multicoloured wrapping paper and added blue flower ribbon to the hood.

The teddy has been punched from Carl craft.

Was a bit nervous because I was not sure whether it would sell - but it did!

I made this froggy card with fabric from Spotlight in Singapore. Added glitter and some more detailing... it sold itself off to a French lady - surprise, surprise!!