Graduation Cards

I graduated recently and two days before the ceremony, I decided to make graduation cards for some of my close friends. Here's a rough guide to how I did it:

ONE //  I started by misting white cardstock with various colours of mist, and decided on using only gold and pink. On some cards I sprayed the mist directly from the bottle, and on others I unscrewed the cap and dripped it onto the cardstock. The different ways of misting gave my cards some variation so they wouldn't all look the same.

TWO //  Then, I cut out the words using my silhouette, and painted them with Distress Paint (really really love this!).

THREE //  Once everything was dry, I glued the die cuts using a glue pen, my go-to adhesive for small die cuts like this. Then I embellished with enamel dots which I am currently crazy about, and decorated the card with a hand drawn border, as inspired by Maggie Holmes here.

The silhouette is a really awesome tool if you ever find yourself having to make many cards in a short time! I have a tendency to be too lazy to use it, but I really shouldn't. Hope this inspires you to bring your silhouette out and get it cutting again! :)

I'm happy to answer any questions about products, techniques etc, just leave them in the comment box :) Have a good week ahead everyone! :)

A Sunflower Card

Made a simple card for a friend of a friend using this Silhouette cut. Added leaves by using another shape I had in my library, and a pot by drawing a rectangle and editing it to a trapezium. The leaves are actually a dark green but appear black in the photo.

Thanks for dropping by! You can also see my other cards here :)

For a ballerina born in May

A birthday card I made for one of my closest dance classmates!

I wasn't in a card-making mood before I made this, but got my act together because she pushes me to dance my best in class, every week, and so I really wanted to hand make something specially for her. 

Products

Amy Tangerine's Yes Please stickers, paper from American Crafts My Girl paper pack, doodle bug twin, Cameo Silhouette to cut the words, and mists from various brands. 

Project Life Week 1 and 2

I have just finished my first-ever PL spread. It took about three hours to complete, from selecting and printing photos to putting it together so I need to find a way to speed this up.

All the materials used here were from my stash! I didn't buy any kits, or anything special for PL (well, except washi tape, but one can use washi for many things ^_^), so I hope by the end of the year I would've cleared a fair bit of my stash.

The title card was made using alpha thickers and a hand-drawn pattern. I absolutely LOVE patterns like these!!! You can see the gorgeous original here, done by bravesailors on instagram.

That's all for this week! Let me know if you have any questions in the comment box below :)

Dance Arts Recital Mini Album

In December I also made a mini album for my dance classmate Tabitha! I had so many photos of her that I took at our Dance Recital, I decided they would make a good album :) I gave it to her as a Christmas present - mini albums make fantastic presents ^_^ Here are some of my favourite pages:

 I used the Cameo to cut out the words on cream cardstock, then put patterned paper behind.

 

  

I didn't want to use a hole puncher because the "holes" are too huge, so I hand cut smaller holes to put the rings through :o

 We were called the Minnie Mouse club because of our black and white polka dot costume :)

 

"Rumor had it that there was a boy in dance!"

You can see the rest of the album here. Thanks for dropping by!

Christmas cards 2012

Making Christmas cards is my biggest crafty project every year. This year I made 33, my biggest number yet, thanks to my Cameo, which has cost a bomb to maintain, but has also made life slightly easier for me.

I was pretty behind time this year. On Christmas day I was still writing cards, and I thought "no, this isn't right". So this year I've got to figure out a workflow/process that will enable me to be more efficient.

Here are some of them (I forgot to photograph some of them before I sent them out! :( ):

Special card for the best friend because she loves owls

 Done using Cameo sketch pens for the bottom border, mists for the ground, and Cameo cut outs. I also used American Crafts POW Glitter paper for the holly which works amazingly well with the Cameo ^_^ And, they come in the most gorgeous colours!

Also used the gold American Crafts Glitter paper here :)

This was a design I bought from the Silhouette store. It's one of the Nine Ladies Dancing in the song Twelve Days of Christmas. I changed the colours so I could use the AC glitter paper :)

 I also made a Ten Lords a Leaping card, but forgot to take a photo of that :(

This was the back of most cards. I am often at a loss when it comes to filling in the back. This time I stamped two images using the Amy Tangerine date stamp and another stamp from I-don't-know-where.

Last December I figured out how to mod podge and happily glittered several cards ^_^ I'm so happy to have finally used all the glitter I bought!

These were made using only the Cameo sketch pens. If you're keen on getting them, here's my two cents worth:

Silver: the best of the lot and works wonderfully on black and dark/navy blue. 

Gold: it's is a yellow gold and doesn't really stand out on white cardstock. 

Bronze: looks great on white and cream/vanilla cardstock.

White: doesn't really stand out on black paper, I used it for one card only.

Hope that helped and thanks for dropping by! ~

My approach to Project Life

I usually tend to jump right into projects, but I've realised that leads to lots of frustration and sometimes, regret, so before I start on Project Life, here're some thoughts on how I plan to do it:

1. Cut out shapes in advance

2. Pre-make journalling cards 

I'm not sure how much I'll rely on the cards in the core kit (I got it as a gift :) ) and I like making things anyway. Will probably be using my scraps, cameo, watercolour paints, stamps, mists, and embossing powders* for this!

I'm trying to avoid buying kits (even though they're so tempting!) and try to use up my scraps. I think PL will be a great way to put my stash to good use! ^_^

* My super awesome ballet classmate Christine got me a heat gun for Christmas! Which is why I can now use embossing techniques for my PL ^_^


3. Fortnightly / Monthly / Event spreads
I've read that PL offers flexibility and versatility in documenting the everyday, so I'm going to make full use of that :p

• Event spreads are for important things like birthdays (when I actually remember to bring my camera), graduation (I might be graduating this year), and festivals etc
• Monthly spreads will be for crazy busy periods 
• Fortnightly spreads for the rest of the year because I have an obsession with chronology.

4. Organise photos by week and event
Here's how it looks like:

5. Constantly source for inspiration when I'm feeling lazy
I have a feeling I'll have to do number 5 a lot :p Some PLifers whose spreads I really like are Liz Tamanaha, Leena Loh, Natalia Bun, and Geralyn Sy.