One Great Year!

"MUMMY!! IT'S OVER~~~" Have you heard of this phrase? If you have, YES... it's been One great fulfilling year on Gerda Steiner Design Team and the owner has given me countless opportunities to share my creations and it's also a privilege to work with the rest of the members on this team! Made many new friends, know many new people in this industry and pushed my limits! My Design Team time is up now. Before i go, let me share one last card on this blog with you!

I am still very crazy over "How Are Ewe" clear stamp set. For this card, i stamped the sheep, ducks, party hat and butterfly from the stamp set. Coloured them with copies and used a circle die cut to cut a circle frame. Used my ink dauber with Squeezed Lemonade and Dried Marigold distress ink to sponge the top. This is an easier way than blending in circles because i am too lazy to find a waste paper to lay on my table before inking.

I used my Hero Arts Woodgrain rubber stamp and versamark to stamp on Black cardstock. Next, i dust Clear Perfect Pearls onto the black cardstock. I used clear water to spritz from a far a few times to make the perfect pearls stick onto the versa mark impression. This way, the perfect pearl shimmer will not go anywhere! "Birthday" sentiment is a die cut by Avery Elle and i filled in the word "Happy" using my white Signo Gel Pen.

Here's a closer look! Look at the shimmer on the woodgrain! And how the sheep can look so cute in dark pink!

I hope to see you somewhere else soon and do follow me on instagram or Facebook to see other creations i make using GSD stamps in future!

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Ewe Are Awesome!

Welcome to my cosy little blog! I hope you have just hopped from Joyce's blog (Hawaii) to my blog (Singapore)! If you got lost halfway, fret not, just read through this post and you will see the hop order at the very bottom! I am so proud to see GSD expand from a digital stamp store to a clear stamp store. And the stamp just keeps getting better with great quality stamp too! When I received the stamp set, there was a personalized note. She remembered that i love SHEEPS! Yes yes.. EWE will not be able to resist the CUTENESS!



I was inspired to create a "College" style of card to try to fit as many of the clear stamp in as possible. When i stamped the chicks on the left, it happened to have 7 and half of them. The number 7 calls for RAINBOW coloring! haha! The half chick at the bottom got to have more of a pink purple tone. The sheeps are colored using Grey tone markers (Neutrals). I used the dotting technique (basically dotting randomly all the way) to create the wool-like texture.

All backgrounds are sponged using distress inks. I used Spun Sugar, Squeezed Lemonade, Wild Honey, Tumbled Glass and Shabby Shutters. I used Copic as my choice of coloring medium and smooth cardstock for stamp. Cloud die cut by Memory Box.

To celebrate the Blog Hop GSD is giving away 3 of the new released stamp set!!! The winners will be randomly chosen from all the comments of the blogs mentioned below!

Start: 11th July 2015, 12midnight. 

End: 13th July 2015, 9am

The 3 winners will be announced on www.gerdasteinerdesigns.com on 13th July, 3pm. 

Official Release Date of the new clear stamp "How are EWE" Set is 14th July, 3pm. July 14th. 

**All mentioned date and time above is based on Singapore (GMT +8) Timezone. 

Hop Order:

Start: www.gerdasteinerdesigns.com 

Wiebke Zander http://buntebastelecke.blogspot.de/

Karen Oliver http://moreplease-ko.blogspot.com/

Jess Gerstner - http://www.jesscrafts.com/

Julia Altermann http://just-one-more-card.com/

Joyce Nakaoka http://enjoyscrappin2.com/

Madey Lim http://madeylim.blogspot.com/

Chitra Menon http://craftingchitra.blogspot.com/

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Purrfect Trip & Clean Color Real Brush

Hello Stampers! I am back today to share another card using Gerda Steiner Design Playful Kitten Clear Stamp set. This time round, i combined 2 images to show 2 friends (in this case, cats) parting away. I used white embossing powder to stamp the sentiment and it is a perfect message for this card.

The colors are very vibrant because i used the Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to color them. I bought the set of 60 when i was in Japan this month and it was so much cheaper than buying from the States. Ok, convert yourself - i bought it for about $130 Singapore dollars; do the math! I haven't got the chance to used them fully but other than the raves on how pigmented the colors are and how easy it is to blend with or without waters, there is one thing that the rest of the bloggers didn't tell you and i think you should know before diving in to this bandwagon. The brushes needs CONTROL~ when i say this, i mean it. The brush is very very soft and while some people like it because they can use it as calligraphy, personally i have a love hate relationship for it. The Copic markers already require aaaaaa-bit of control, but this.............. this requires you to be very light handed when you are colouring fine lines. haha! However, because i don't own any watercolor palettes or markers, this is actually a very very good deal for me. So overall, i still love it!

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Cheese Please

Hello there! i'm back to share another card from Gerda Steiner Designs. I hope this digital stamp is up in her shop now because i am scheduling this post. If you follow me on instagram, i'm currently having a great time in Osaka Universal Studio Japan! Woohooo!


i started of by printing 2 of the same image in the same size. Next, i used copies to color the rabbit. I am recently in love with those unicorn rainbow kind of colors so i mixed up the yellow and pink to create a unique "unicorn" rabbit! Ok, the rabbit itself is very cute already, but i think i just made it Uuuuunique! hehe! On the other image, i only coloured in the camera because i intend to cut it out and pop it up with foam squares.


Over here, you can see the dimension of the camera. You will also notice that the edges of my cut images are black. That is because, i use a black moment marker to ink the edges - it get rides of the white core from my white cardstock.

For the background papers, i used a summer theme Echo Park Paper pad because it had theme parks and having fun time prints. Definitely suits the sentiment from Mama Elephant.

I will also like to take the opportunity to thank all my fans for the good times that they had made me have while creating my cards! Your words of encouragement are the greatest! :)

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Introducing Playful Kitten Clear Stamp

Hi Everyone! Hope you had came over from the Gerda Steiner Design blog post to see the 2nd card!


As you know, the 1st card at GSD blog was towards the Clean and Simple idea, which i seldom make because i have tons of pretty pattern papers to pick and use from! So i always can't resist to not use my pattern papers on my cards.


Here's a second card using the kitten hiding under the sheets stamp. I imagined the kitten in the laundry room playing around the dirty sheets on the floor and so i dug out my Paper Smooches Squeaky Clean Stamp set too to create a scene.


I usually color everything else first and leave the "main" focal point to be the last because most of the time i know what colors it will be. For this cat, i know it will either brown, orange or grey. After i color the sheets above it's head. I knew i can't color the cat orange because the sheet on the right is orange too. I did't want it to be grey because the washing machine and basket is grey too. So i was left with the color brown and i felt it was perfect because it has a contrast to the peach color sheets above it's head.


Here's another close up look of the card i made. Hope you like it and enjoy your week ahead!

Love, Madey.

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Paying Tribute to Lee Kuan Yew

On Monday (23 March 2015), everyone in Singapore woke up with a very very sad news. Our founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, passed away in the early morning at the age 91. We were more or less prepared because for the past 2 weeks, the government gave constant updates of his detoriating health condition as he was warded in SGH. But when it happened, feelings are different. The Monday was gloomy and everyone on the commute were pretty silent. 

So as i sit here by my computer after 9.5hours of waiting to pay my last respect to him in the Parliament house earlier, i try to recall all that i am thankful for. I will try to type as fast and as clear as possible but forgive me if i am not as i have not slept for the past 24hours. 

I am thankful for all the volunteers around the Parliament area keeping everything in order. The sponsors who gave biscuits, breads, drinks, cold apples, wet wipes etc were awesome too. Everything worked hand in hand to make our wait a more memorable one. As i sat in the Padang for almost 6 hours looking around and observing all the people around me, i felt WHOLE. I have never seen a Singapore so united before. No one was complaining and people were nice, really nice. There were non-Singaporeans too. Some seem to be general workers and there was a single Caucasian in the queue as well. Different groups started to make friends with each other and the time passed more quickly than ever.

The queue to enter the Parliament stated on Wednesday morning and it has continuously continued for 3 days... This is definitely a record which i am not sure if it had happened to any country before. This record will go down into our history books or might even be on the Guinness World Record.

This Q made me realise "Wow, Singaporeans can be patient, can be kind, can be gracious.". If you don't know Singaporeans, we are pretty good at complaining. Haha! We will complain when transportations break down, we will complaint when prices increase and we will complain when there is a overcrowding etc. When i experience the 6 hours sitting down waiting at Padang, i felt it was torturous. Then when i had a non-stop walk for 3 hours at a slow speed, stopping here and there, that's when it was the worst. Backache and shoulder ache because I had to stand still and walk in small steps. When i got to the coffin and made my bow, my back and heart lightened up and i felt a sense of relief. Thank you, Mr Lee for everything.

Singapore has grown a lot and we will be celebrating our 50th National Day this year. Without LKY around, this celebration will definitely be different. Because he led us out to independence and he built the foundation of this country, His methods might not have been agreeable by everyone and people might say that we had lost our freedom through PAP, but i don't think so. Our gains definitely outweighed the loss. Without his strict leadership, Singapore would be still a 3rd World country and we would not be so many things. Singapore has a magnificent Garden By The Bay, Parks and green buildings around the sunny island because he believed in a Garden City concept. Singaporeans are able to speak 2 languages and English being the master language to communicate with so many people out there because he knew it was important in the long term. Singapore is a Multi Racial country and we can accept different "skin" people because this is the Singaporean Singapore LKY envisioned to built. Lastly, we can go out late for drinks and supper without looking over our shoulder when it is late at night because he built a safe city for us to live in. He always had a long vision.

I am proud to hold a Singapore passport and give thanks that i have an easy way travelling in and out of overseas countries without hassle. Our red passport with the crest hold so much value for a small country like us.

His contributions are not boosted by Singaporeans on the internet but other countries recognise it too. As a Singaporean, i am thankful for so many ministers and presidents for coming down to our small red dot to pay tribute to LKY. Greater gratitudes are given to India and New Zealand for having a half-mast flag on Sunday too. Singapore citizens will cry this Sunday and it is comforting to know that someone out there is here for us. 

9 hours of wait is nothing. Until the age of 91, he still continued his duties as a mentor to give advise to the politician. He gave his life and as i Queue and wanting to give up, i just have a thought in mind "Keep going. This is nothing as compared to the years that he had given up. This is really the best i can do." So here i am, proud to say that i have teared for him, visited him and wrote my personal thoughts and gratitude towards him. Lastly, i will send him off tomorrow (Sunday) during his State funeral before cremation.

Tomorrow, Singapore will stand as one. More united than ever. And more powerful to move on with life from next Monday onwards.

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Turtley Great

Hi there! Thanks for dropping by today again to read my cardmaking process! I bet you have seen soooo many different amazing cards created with the "Late by with Love" clear stamp set but here i am today to share a different kind of card - called the Box Card! You can flatten this and mail it out without any issue!

I used the turtle, balloon, cupcake, candle, party hat and "Hope your day is turtley great" sentiment from the stamp set. The rest of the elements (e.g. cloud, birthday sentiment, background flowers etc) are from other brand's stamp and die set. The GSD clear stamp images are really easy to fussy cut out. If you are not a good cutter and tend to leave tiny white borders around it...... this is a solution: Grab a Momento black marker and use the brush tip to trace around the edges. Hold the cut image up and glide the brush tip around the sides.

The turtle and cupcakes were colored with Prisma ColorPencils and the balloon using Copic Markers. The only way i can color a Balloon nicely is to use Copic Markers, that's why i switched my coloring medium! I am not too sure if you have the same problem as me, but i can't use my Prisma Color and Watercolor to color faces and balloons. I can never get the correct shading/tone for it! Any tips for me girls?


Here is the side view of the box card. 3 layers inside. When you make a box card, make sure the images used are of different sizes and try to make some images (e.g. balloon, birds, clouds etc) to "float" at the top. This will create layer effects and bring your eyes around the top to bottom of the box card.

Till then, i will see you again in 2 weeks to share a new card with you!

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Layering Cupcakes

Hi everyone! i am back with a new stamp set by Gerda Steiner Designs! This time round, she has released a clear stamp set. YIPPEE! It is an amazing quality and from what i feel, it is the same quality as Lawn Fawn or Mama Elephant stamp sets. You know, there are some brands out there that doesn't make comparable clear stamp sets and the ink just beads up on the lines. Never like those stamp sets - boohoo.

So for my first card with this stamp set, i decided to make use of the cupcakes and numbers in the set.


First, i die cut a stitched square with a piece of smooth white cardstock 240gsm. I then stamped a cupcake in the circle bottom.


Next, i stamp another cupcake on a piece of masking paper. If you do not have a masking paper, you can stamp on the edge of the post-it where the sticky adhesive is at the back of it and it can be a substitute of a masking paper. For me, i choose masking paper because i can re-use it many times! Next, i fussy cut it out and stick it over my cupcake on the square die cut.


By masking it, i can stamp another 2 cupcakes on the left and right side of it to make it 3 cupcakes in total. Odd number are a beauty, so if you notice, i like to stamp things in 3,5,7s...


With the masking sheet on, i stamped the balloon strings as the candle sticks for the number balloons. i had to leave the masking sheet on because the string needs to look like it it stuck inside/behind the cupcake. I then peeled the masking sheet off and stick it on the left and right cupcake before stamping the candles. Same logic, i wanted the candles to look like it is inside the cupcake.

The stamp set also has small elements to make use of. If you don't know, the bottom left corner has a small "leaf" looking thing, it is actually the candle wick! So i place it on the number balloons so it looks like solid number candles instead!


Peel off the mask and coloured it with copic markers!


Lastly, i assembled the card and left the left side blank because i want to save it to put a person's name on it! This makes the card more personalised. With cupcakes, i can't miss out to put doily on it!

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Happy Chinese New Year

Hello everybody! As a Chinese, we celebrate the Chinese New Year and eat lots of food during this period of time! We will go to relatives and friends house to do visiting and by custom, we eat there too. So imagine when i have 4 houses to go in a day? 4 meals in total! We will often eat steamboat because it is a good way to sit together and eat hot food constantly. No worries that the dishes will turn cold! Other than proper food, we drink lots of sweet packet drinks and have lots of tidbits. Thank goodness, i love tidbits! So i am a very happy girl! ^.^

Other than eating, we collect ang baos (red packets) too! We exchange auspicious phrases and the married couples will the single ones (which is me!) a red packet as a form of blessing. In a few years time i will be getting married, so my days of getting a red packet is cutting short! And in return, i will be giving out red packets to the kids! The cycle continues~

I made the above 3 cards using Mama Elephant's cosmic stars stamp set. This year is the Goat year under the Lunar calendar, so luckily the cosmic stars has Aries and Capricorn to represent 2 different kind of Goats. Pisces are 2 fishes that happen to represent a Chinese auspicious phrase that we often use. Sentiments by Micia Stamp which were bought by my friend from Taiwan. They are so lovely and pretty but slightly costly. Perhaps next year i will be doing red packets instead since there was a demand this year. ;)

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