Let's Fly A Kite

Hi there! This card has been circulating the web for awhile..... Made this back in Dec 2014 and it has been on my instagram and proud to say, on Mama Elephant's re-gram too! If you are a fellow crafter, you will understand my excitement, right? When it was re-gramed, my followers shot up! So so so encouraging. Best year end gift from one my favourite stamping company.

And this was made possible because i had a customer who was very encouraging and inspiring too. He found my work somewhere (probably on Carousell) and he emailed me very clearly what he wanted on the box card, yet he trusted my skill to decide on other designs too.

Side track, there are sometimes when a customer wants something so specific that anything "extra" that you do will deem "not nice" by a customer. At those times, i feel sad and restricted because when someone engages me, i hope they love my taste and design concept already. However, no matter what, i learn from every order i get. I learn to ask specific questions before accepting orders. Example, are there any colors i should avoid or can i use cute images.

Anyway, back to the customer. He signed off with his Dayre account and i did some "background" check and found out he was a special person. To cut the story short, he suffered a stroke last year when he was just 20 years old. Read more here and do feel free to shower him with words of encouragement. :)

After reading his posts, i felt "connected" to him and i feel a bless to be able to make him a 6 years anniversary card for his girlfriend who stood by such tough times. I can't image what went on in her mind when she picked up a call telling her that her boyfriend is in the hospital. For me, i think i will break down mentally and physically. Hmmmm, i am not good in dealing with hospital news. =/







Trees are from a  My Favourite Things die cut. Boy and girl image from Mama Elephant stamp set. Kite from an Imaginise stamp set. Lastly, the tent was printed from an online image.

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Happy Birthday Virgos!

Hi everyone! It has been a productive week in my craft room! So much so that i had extra time to make a card for a challenge! Yes, as per the picture above, it's the Mama Elephant And Me August Challenge and i will be using the following card to enter it!

Since i was already in a watercoloring spirit when i made a card i posted a few days ago, i took the chance to make an additional watercolor background for the challenge card. And like i had mentioned earlier, i learnt my technique from a youtube video called "Bokeh Made Easy by Wplus9 Design". Instead of using watercolor palette, i used my Derwent Inktense Pencils which can be used for watercoloring too! So i used Teal Green, Apple Green and Sun Yellow for my background! I diecut a few circles onto a acetate sheet to create a DIY stencil for my Bokeh effect. Using a ink dauber and Colorbox Frost White Pigment ink to create the white spots, also known as the Bokeh spots. I also sprinkled a few drops of Hedi Swap Gold Color Shine on the background to create some fun!

Proud to say that for this challenge, all the stamps that were used are from Mama Elephant! The shop/house is from the Mama Elephant "Toy Shop" stamp set. The sentiment is also found in that stamp set.

The balloons are are from the "Up and Away" stamp set and i popped it up with foam squares to let it appear to be "flying". Adding white lines to create the round reflection.

The girl is the Virgo from "Cosmic Stars". It is the Virgo birthdays now!! I am a Virgo too! ;) i mask of the star on her hand to make it appear that she is holding the balloons instead.

Lastly, to ground her, i stamped the flowers from the "Love from Above" stamp set.

All images are colored using copic markers and the shop/house was the hardest to color! But i am happier now because the card turn out to be just fine! 

Anyway, hope you enjoyed and visit back soon!

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The Bunny Ear

As i have mentioned before, watercoloring is always a "Nahhhh...." for me. However, i recently watched a youtube video called "Bokeh Made Easy by Wplus9 Design" and i was so inspired and hyped to try this technique! Even though i do not have the traditional watercolor palettes, but i have Derwent Inktense Pencils which are used for watercoloring too!

So i used Poppy Red, Tangerine and Sun Yellow for my background! Instead of using circle stencils, i used the Tim Holtz Splatters Layering Stencil with Colorbox Frost White Pigment ink to create the white spots. Oh my my, i love this!

If you know your Honey Bunny stamp set well, you will know that the bunnies are either both ears down or both ears standing up. So what i did was, i masked off one of the drooped ear of the bunny sitting down and stamped. And then i stamp a propped up ear from another standing bunny over the image. Next, i fussy cut the image out and place it over a vellum circle with carrots on the ground. The grass was also watercolored and diecut with MFT Grass die.

As for the sentiment, i choose "I'll be here if you need a hug" from In My Heart Stamp set and mask off the word "hug" before stamping. Then i mask off all the alphabets, leaving the letter "n" to stamp after the "a" to make it "an". Lastly, i took the sentiment "I'm all ears!" from Honey Bunny Stamp set and mask all the lettering leaving the word "ear" only. Stamped it and got my custom-made sentiment!

So now, the bunny has a listening ear for someone who is feeling down!

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Shaker Pandas

Addicted to the cute pandas from Mama Elephant's "Pandamonium" stamp set! They are so adorable and i had to put them into a shaker card.

First, i stamp them (pandas and envelope iamge) on some Shrink Plastic with Stazon Ink. Then i cut them out, followed by heating the plastic over my heat gun. The plastic shrank and became tiny solid pieces immediately! So fun!

Next, i die-cut a circle on a piece of pattern paper to lay a piece of transparency over the window. Threw in the pandas and envelopes along with some sequins into the circle and sealed the sides with tons of foam tape. If i were to do this again, i would cut a square instead because it is not easy to seal the sides of a circle!

Anyway, i used Simon Says Stamp's "Happy" word die-cut to run through 5 sheets of paper. I stick them on top of each other to create a dimensional effect. Learnt this from Jennifer McGuire! Genius way to pop it up instead of cutting small strips of foam tape!

Here's a closer look at the card!

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Panda MWAH!

Finally got my hands down to using Mame Elephant's new border's die and Pandamonium stamp set! The panda's are so cute and the best part is, no coloring needed!

Love the new borders die because it has stitched edges. Got inspired by Emily Leiphart to do partial die-cutting and stamp the Pandas in the middle before die-cutting the rest of the edge. Struggled a little but i believe practice makes perfect. I didn't get the Pandamonium die-cut set because i felt the images are easy to fussy cut. Trying to save every penny to get other cuter stamp set!

Papers and Font stickers from Amy Tangerine.

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