Monday 17 February 2020

Almost totally recycled

Hello bloggers,


Here is my almost totally recycled card which has been made with the following:

1. An Apple blue tooth mouse packaging ( the window on which the butterfly has been stuck).
2. Ferraro Rocher foil for the butterfly.
3. Packaging material to give body to the foil.

I think I have used a Kaiser craft butterfly die for the butterfly. I quite like how Aleeza suggested the design for this card. Everything except the cardstock has here has been made with packaging material. 




I will enter this simple beauty in the following challenges:

http://happylittlestampers.blogspot.com/ -anything goes with dies

Happy card making,

Monica 

Sunday 16 February 2020

Kick up your heels and have fun!

Hello bloggers,

Well, I used to wear heels once upon a time but very tame ones - nothing like these wild ones. And now all I wear are Fitflops! 

The background of this card has been made with food colours from Indonesia. I glided the entire cardstock over the food colour. The cardstock kind of got warped so I put it under a heavy book for almost four-five days. 
The sentiment and image stamp are from Hero Arts (clear stamps). I hand tore the paper on which the sentiment has been stamped for character. The strip of Kraft may be a recycled strip of paper. 

I am making up a sizeable collection to sell for the abused women's home that I am supporting. Hoping I make a good sum to donate. 



http://yournextstamp.com/blog/ - creating your own background

Happy card making,

Monica 

Friday 14 February 2020

Thank you, Shirley-Anne!

Hello dear bloggers,

Here is yet another thank you card made for the abused women's shelter which is run by the Singapore Council of Women's Organizations. They wanted me to make thank you cards to be sent to the donors/sponsors.
 Apologies for the overdose of thank cards coming your way. 

The 'oh so pretty' printed paper on this card came from dear Shirley-Anne @ http://shirley-anne-stampingforjoy.blogspot.com/ along with many other goodies a few years ago. 
I was keeping it safe all along but decided to use it at last since I wanted to make really pretty cards for the shelter. 

I am hoping my meditation and self development classes resume at the school asap as I think we all could do with a dose of positivity. 

Coming back to the card, I have used hand made paper from India. 

The die cut has been cut from packaging material over which I painted a shade of red acrylic paint. I quite like this simple beauty. Thank you, Shirley-Anne.






Happy card making,

Monica 

Thursday 13 February 2020

Thank you

Hello dear bloggers,

Here is a card to show you that was made with leftovers of water coloured paper as well as hand made paper from India. And there are a few scraps of coloured cardstock as well to fill in the matching colours. 
The sentiment is a rubber stamp (too far away to read its name) and I have used Stazon ink to stamp it.

 I think I did go overboard with the strips of paper yet there were a few errors to cover up so more strips came in handy. 

The inspiration for this card came from a post on Pinterest.


Learning for next time: use wider strips to ease the gluing process.



I will participate in the following challenges with this card:

http://tuesdaythrowdown.blogspot.com/ - create your own background

Happy card making, happy health and happy, happy happy!


Monica 

Wednesday 12 February 2020

Thank you card

Dear bloggers,

Here is my card to show you. The purple colour is actually leftover from Dylon fabric dies which we needed to dye Aleeza's t-shirt for her house colours. I took card stock and gently glided it over the liquid dye that was left behind in the basin and this is what I achieved. The thanks sentiment, as usual, has been die cut from a yoghurt lid. I have mounted the dyed cardstock on cardboard instead of foam dots. Sometimes I take a whole piece of cardboard and stick it under. 




I will enter in the following challenges:
Arty Divas - anything goes
http://tuesdaythrowdown.blogspot.com/ - make your own background


Happy card making,

Monica 

Tuesday 11 February 2020

Partly recycled


Hello sweet bloggers,

This card has been made with packaging material again and what I did was to place the printed packaging (which was actually very flimsy plastic) under the reverse of the starts. 

The sentiment is a washi tape which I cut carefully so that the edges look straight, I hope. Lol. 

The little gold dots are also from packaging material. I have used cardboard to prop up the top layer. I quite like what I created. 



I will participate in the following challenges with my card:

https://creationsinpink.blogspot.com/ - anything goes in pink

Happy card making,

Monica 

Monday 10 February 2020

Wild flowers again!!!

Hello dear bloggers,

Here is a card to show you today which has been made with brush markers and Pentel water colour tubes. The wild flower die cuts were smooshed with Camlin brush markers from India and the background which has been created by Aleeza with Pentel water colours has been done with a brush. The die cut sentiment has been coloured with Pentel water colours. Aleeza masked the paper with recyled tape before water colouring it and that is how we got a white surface in the centre.



I will participate in the following challenges with this card:




Happy card making,

Monica



Sunday 9 February 2020

I love dahlias

Hello sweet bloggers,

Here is my card to show you today made with my new rubber stamps which I bought from a store called Tokyu Hands. It is a really cool store with stationery and other products. 

I stamped the dahlia and masked it before stamping the leaf stamp. I used two-three colours of distress inks for the leaves and Stazon for the dahlia. It was coloured with water colour pencils later. The cardstock on which the dahlia was stamped has been sponged with a distress ink as well. 


I will take part in the following challenges:


Happy card making,

Monica 

Friday 7 February 2020

Happy Birthday card

Hello dear bloggers,

Here is my card to show you with a stencilled brick background and a die cut feather on top. I have used watercolours to colour in the stencil and for the feather, I have used Mala paints from Ikea as well as Basics acrylics in red. I quite like how the feather turned out. 

The sentiment is a store bought one. The card stock with the feather diecut as been popped up on cardboard as my way of recycling and not using foam dots to help save the earth in my own little way.



I will participate in the following challenges with this card:

Arty Divas Challenge - anything goes


Happy card making,

Monica

Thursday 6 February 2020

Partly recycled

Hello sweet bloggers,

Here is a quick card to show you made with almost all packaging material. 

The checkered paper is actually an envelope of a premier cinema ticket while the shells are from a perfume packaging of a perfume called White Linen. They are a pretty shade of gold but the camera did not pick that up. I used a circle die to cut them out. 

The sentiment has been handwritten on a gold piece of paper which is at the bottom of the box of Ferraro Rocher chocolates. 

So this creation is all about beauty for the eyes (cinema ticket packaging)  nice fragrance for the senses (perfume carton) and something for the taste buds (chocolates).



I am going to enter the following challenges with this card:



Happy card making,

Monica 

Tuesday 4 February 2020

Dream Big

Hello dear bloggers,

Belated Happy New Year to all of you.

Wow, this was a long absence indeed. My older one was visiting from university and my mum also joined us from India so it was a nice reunion. My older one, Zeenya is 20 years old and she is great company. She has chosen Psychology so there was lots to share besides other things.

For New Year's Eve, we went to a beautiful Indian restaurant for dinner. There was live Indian music accompanied by traditional folk dances from Punjab, the green state of India. The food was good, too.

Now to my card. The background has been created with Camlin brush markers from India on 300 gsm watercolour paper. As you can see, the hues of these brush markers are bright and super colourful which I simply love. 

The stars and sentiment have been die cut using a yoghurt lid which seems to be quite my trademark for some time now. Lol. 




I will participate in the following challenges:




Happy card making,

Monica

Friday 20 December 2019

Partially recycled

Dear bloggers,

Life has been nicely busy... I just finished the last session of 'guided meditation and the science of happiness' session for the parents at school. It went well overall and I am grateful that the parents who attended the programme found it calming and enjoyable. We managed to collect a sizeable sum from the earnings of this programme and went to visit the shelter for abused women where we handed over the cash along with 20 handmade cards with love to be used for birthdays at the shelter for women and children. I also took small tubes of hand lotion from Bodyshop to spoil the ladies.

The card below is one of the 10 thank you cards that has been requested by the manager of the shelter. 

This time I concentrated on giving goodies to the staff at school and tried to include whoever I could and it was so nice to see smiles on their faces. A small pack of chocolates or biscuits can create such wonders!

Now to my card which has been created with silver washi tape, a strip of printed vellum and a sentiment which has been die cut from a yoghurt lid. I thought the photo was fine but obviously, it is not. Lol. There is always a new tomorrow to hope that it will be better next time.




I will enter my card in the following card challenge:

Happy card making,

Monica

Tuesday 10 December 2019

Partly recycled

Hello dear bloggers,

Here is a rather bright birthday card made with leftover tape from Aleeza's acrylic painting. She used it as masking tape and when she got it off the canvas it was too nice to be thrown away. Known to be the recycling queen (title given by dear Lynn), I had to use it and this is what I did. 

The birthday sentiments are store bought. It looks a bit messy here as the background is too close to the colours on the card but in real life, trust me it looks really nice.





Happy card making,

Monica 

Wednesday 4 December 2019

For CAS(e) this sketch

Hello dear bloggers,

Ever since I started these meditation sessions for parents in school, life has become full and busy in a nice sort of way. I would have raised something like 1600 dollars at the end of two terms. The good news is that the Singapore government will match each dollar donated so the contribution would get doubled.


Now to my simple card for CAS(e) this sketch
The flower has been die cut with the packaging paper of a bouquet. In the centre is a ready made pink flower from my stash. The silver nestie has been die cut from a yoghurt lid. The purple nestie under it has been die cut from a piece of cardstock. I embossed a piece of cardstock and stuck it on the card before sticking the rest of the stuff on it.


I will enter this card in the following challenges:
https://moo-mania.blogspot.com/ - use your scraps
http://cardsgalorechallenges.blogspot.com/ - anything goes
http://happycraftchallenge.blogspot.com/ -anything goes
http://challengeleannsworld101.blogspot.com/ - anything goes




Happy cardmaking to you,

Monica 

Friday 22 November 2019

Happy Birthday card

Hello sweet bloggers,

Here is a card that Aleeza die-cut using a new die we bought over Amazon (for a fraction of the price I would have paid in a store here) and she used Pentel watercolour tubes to colour the flowers, leaves and borders. She said she found the border quite tedious to colour in. I stuck it over cardboard squares instead of double-sided foam dots to make it environment friendly. A pink ribbon saying happy birthday was tied over the rectangular nestie to complete the picture. I quite like this shabby chic kind of card.



I will submit this card to the following challenges:

artydivas - anything goes


Happy card making,

Monica

Friday 15 November 2019

Thank You card by Aleeza

Hello dear bloggers,

Here is a card to show you today which was made a month ago. The green and gold effect was done Aleeza with a sponge. She basically used the leftover acrylic paints from a canvas to get this effect. 
I quite like how it turned out and the thank you sentiment was die cut after Aleeza went over a packaging sheet with Mala gold colours. There were some telltale signs on the white parts of the paper so I stuck rhinestones to cover it up. 



Down below is the room where I held the meditation sessions in school yesterday. There is a plaque which says, 'The purpose of our lives on this earth is to be happy' - by Dalai Lama. I am trying to learn that!!! Lol.
We had our first session for the second term and it went pretty well with a turnout of 10-11 people. We did a fun introduction of ourselves without talking of our children or our work followed by a guided meditation and we read randomly from inspiring books. 
It was fun and we did some more meditation. In the end, we watched a ted talk on slowing down which was quite interesting. 




I will participate in the following challenges with my card:

Arty Divas  - anything goes


Thank you for reading and happy card making,

Monica 

Wednesday 13 November 2019

Partly recycled

Hello bloggers,

I have good news to share. Today my initiative hosted a meeting wherein I conducted a meditation and a speaker came to talk about essential oils and their therapeutic benefits. Tomorrow begins my second programme for meditation and relaxation in school for the parents.

Here is my card to show you today which has been upcycled using a chocolate packaging. The orange dots are shiny in real life. The hand made papers are leftovers from a larger sheet. The sentiment is a die-cut and I have put a rhinestone over the i of smile to jazz it up.



I will enter this card in the following:
artydivas - anything goes



Happy crafting,

Monica 

Friday 18 October 2019

Birthday wishes

Hello sweet bloggers,

Here is a card I made a few days ago. The butterfly has been die cut from watercolour paper to which I applied smoosh technique. I have layered butterfly die cut from watercolour paper on to another butterfly which has been die cut using a foil lid of a yoghurt container. Somehow I wish that could have been more clearly visible. In real life, it shines through.
The sentiment has been die cut from Sizzix dies using packaging from a perfume.
After die cutting the nestie on the top layer of cardstock, I used the chevron embossing folder and propped it up on strips of white carton.



I will enter this card in the following challenges:



Happy card making and happy everything,

Monica 

Saturday 12 October 2019

Wee little cups

Hello dear bloggers,

Here is a card that I have put together for CAS Colours & Sketches this week. 
The background has been made with watercolour brush markers from Camlin and I think I have used smoosh technique here. 

I have used 300 gms watercolour paper and propped it with corrugated packaging material as suggested by dear Maxine of https://kiwimeskreations.blogspot.com/. Thank you for always suggesting and helping come out with such brilliant solutions. 

The beige teacups were actually Starbucks cups lying around for years while the white one has been die cut using regular cardstock. I have used a Kaiser craft teacup die to die cut the cups.

The sentiment has been handwritten with a Zebra pen. I followed my childhood rule of first writing with a pencil and then going over with a pen. It worked much better than using a pen right on. 


I will enter this card in:


Happy cardmaking,

Monica 

Friday 11 October 2019

Love

Hello, dear sweet bloggers,

Here is my card to show you today. The top panel was embossed after spraying water on to it as I read somewhere that it helps the embossed surface to look more 3D. 
Aleeza went over the brick wall with brown chalk using her fingers.
I placed a layer of white cardboard under the brick wall nestie as suggested by my dear Maxine, who is always so helpful to share tips. 
The little jar is a die-cut from a Japanese die brand, the name of which is Wonderhouse or something similar. Pardon me! I have used watercolour paper which was coloured by the smoosh technique with Camlin brush markers from India. The centre of the jar has also been placed on a piece of white cardboard.

The washi tape is from Hokkaido, Japan and my card has been made with much love.



I will participate in the following challenges:

artydivaschallenge - anything goes


Happy card making,

Monica 

Wednesday 9 October 2019

Thin parchment

Hello dear bloggers,

Here is my card to show you today which was made some weeks ago. The sentiment has been die cut from an Indian wedding card. The butterflies have been die cut from a pastry base. The green and yellow paper you see is a thin parchment-like packaging paper from a t-shirt. I used it over a water colour paper the same way one would use a cling wrap. I followed the exact same technique except that I randomly coloured with water colour pencils and sprayed the paper with water and put the thin parchment-like packaging paper over the water colour paper. This is what came about which I am loving no end. I have the top and bottom paper which I can use without throwing anything away. So I did take care of mother earth too. 



I will enter the following challenges with this card:
https://crazy4challenges.blogspot.com - sentiment as focal point

Happy cardmaking,

Monica 



Monday 7 October 2019

Thank you card for a man

Hello dear bloggers,

I have had this Hero Arts cling stamp set with me for almost 9 years and finally, I decided to let it see some light. The hot air balloons have been coloured with Faber Castell pencils and I wrapped embroidery yarn on the stamped cardstock to give texture. I guess from its simplicity, it would make an ideal card for a man.






Happy card making,

Monica 

Sunday 6 October 2019

Aleeza's card today

Hello sweet bloggers,

Here is a card that Aleeza made yesterday totally on her own. She says the inspiration came from the internet for the cute birds which she drew directly on the cardstock. She coloured the birds with my Derwent water colour pencils without adding water. The washi tape is from my stash, rather our stash as is the thank you sentiment.




I will participate with this card in the following challenges:


Happy card making,

Monica 

Saturday 5 October 2019

Hugs


Hello beautiful bloggers,

Here is another card to show you today which fits with The Flower Challenge which is to make a card with flowers as the focal point. 
My card was water coloured with Faber Castells and the sentiment was die cut. 






Happy card making,

Monica 

Thank you card

Dear sweet bloggers,

Here is my card to show you which was started some months ago and completed this morning. The mauve leaf was die cut from card stock after being treated with watercolours through a plastic bag. The yellowish pinkish-orange background has been done on watercolour paper with smoosh technique. For the sentiment, I have used a sentiment die cut that I picked up while we were in Australia over spring. The paper for the sentiment smooshed with Camlin brush markers from India.



I will participate in the following challenges:

https://polkadoodle.blogspot.com/ - always anything goes
http://qkrstampede.blogspot.com/ - always anything goes

Happy card making,

Monica 

Thursday 3 October 2019

Thanks - partly recycled

Hello beautiful bloggers,

Here is my simple card to show you today. The butterflies have been die cut from water colour paper which was smooshed with Camlin brush markers from India. The sentiment has been die cut from packaging material of a cotton hand towel from Daiso ( a Japanese store).





I will participate in the following challenges:


Happy card making,

Monica 

Tuesday 1 October 2019

Fall card

Hello dear bloggers,

Here is a fall card I have put together and the inspiration for it came from dear Google. I took water colour paper as well as card stock and used my Camlin brush markers from India and vegetable dyes respectively to do smoosh technique. After die cutting the leaves, I stuck on the card stock and twine was held together with two holes and knots on either side. 

The backdrop is yet another canvas I painted. Gosh, little did I know that painting a canvas is far quicker than assembling a card.


I will enter this card in the following challenges:



Happy card making to you,

Monica


Monday 30 September 2019

It is two tiny canvases this time

Hello dear bloggers,

Here is something different to show you today. Aleeza and I have been dabbling with acrylics on canvas since summer, to be honest. This is what I made with a toothbrush and multiple shades of red, orange and yellow Sakura tubes. Guess which tool I have used to paint with??? Guess, guess!!!

Well, it is a toothbrush I have used to achieve this effect and the inspiration came from Pinterest. 



The one down below has been painted by Aleeza, and she has used a stencil brush.


http://welove2create.blogspot.com/ - always anything goes/mix media 


Happy card (canvas for me) making,

Monica 

Thursday 26 September 2019

How bright could bright be!!!

Hello beautiful bloggers,

Here is my card to show you today which was actually created a few months ago. The rose has been made by me with Pentel water colours and I fussy cut it. 
The leaves have been die cut and I have used different mediums of colour. 
Some have been coloured with a brush and water colours while the others have been coloured with a plastic bag with my hand inside it using Mala paints. 
The bright pink cardstock came about as a result of acrylics and a stencil brush. It was fun! 
The DREAM sentiment in gold is actually a small strip from a Washi tape.




I will participate in the following challenges with my card:
arty divas - anything goes


Happy card making to you,

Monica 

Wednesday 25 September 2019

Leaves and leaves

Hello sweet bloggers,

Here is my card to show you today. I took some packaging material and painted the kraft side of it with Mala paints from Ikea. Green, blue and yellow paints were used and I put my hand in a thin plastic bag and just played with it on the packaging material. This is what I achieved. I die cut a rectangular zig zag nestie and popped it up with little bits of corrugated cardboard. This clever idea came from Maxine. Thank you, dear Maxine.

The leaves were stuck over the popped up nestie. Since the packaging material was pretty high in grammage, the leaves were stable enough to stand without bending.



I will participate in the following challenges:




Happy card making,

Monica 

Friday 20 September 2019

Green is the new black

Hello dear bloggers,

Here is my very simple creation to show you today. I have used food colour to dye the card stock and then a Sizzix die was used to cut the leaves. The first picture is slightly fuzzy, so I took one more which you see down below. I have used foam dots to pop up the leaves and the sentiment is handwritten. I know I could have done a better job with the writing. Next time, I promise.



I will submit the card down below in CASE(E) this Sketch this week.



Happy card making and happy everything,

Monica 

Thursday 19 September 2019

Pink feather

Hello sweet peeps,

Today I went to my younger one's school to host the third session of meditation and what we did was a guided gratitude meditation conducted by me and we watched two talks on gratitude and a Ted talk by Sam Berns who passed on in 2014 to Progeria. His talk was so full of good energy and motivation and in spite of watching it multiple times, I still seem to love it from a new angle. I also distributed small gratitude journals to the participants and we ended with eating oranges. By the way, the money from these sessions will be donated to an abused women's shelter in Singapore and I feel so blessed to be able to do that. 

Now to my very simple card which needs barely any explanation. The feather was bought in Indonesia from a lovely book cum stationery shop many years ago. I cut out a nestie and propped it on foam dots. The bright, oh-so-bright feather nested nicely inside the nestie and voila, my card was ready to fly. The backdrop for the photo is paper that was made from elephant poop. I have used it earlier and shared its deep-rooted background with you. Lol. My friend's daughter got it for me all the way from Thailand and the papers are actually so pretty that I dare not cut it. So I have decided to use it as a backdrop. A random thought just came to me which is that maybe I am not keen enough to make cards out of paper that was made out of poop. Lol.



I will enter in the following challenges with my card:



Wish you happy card making,

Monica

Monday 16 September 2019

Dance like no one is watching

Hello dear bloggers,

Here is a card I put together a few days ago. The guitar has been die cut from a fruit packaging carton. I popped it on foam dots for added dimension. The orangish coloured paper has been coloured with an egg yellow vegetable dye. I think the sentiment is a Penny Black one which I love, I have to say. The washi tape is from Typo, a very popular stationery store in town.



I will participate in the following challenges:

Happy cardmaking and happy everything,

Monica