You + Me

Hello sweet friends! I have an exciting news to share. If you liked my FB page, you probably knew already. I'm honored to be one of Amy Jaz Designs Creative Team members

.Check out her new release: You + Me. I fell in love the first time I saw it.This is a versatile kit, I must tell ya. First I made this card.

Then I said to myself that I should make the 'male' version. He does deserve that, doesn't he?

The calculator really caught my attention. Won't you?

And I had to make another card. It's so hard for not to :-)

When I said versatile, it's really is!! It's perfect for the Christmas theme as well.

Note to self to do some scrapbook pages using this kit. And if you want something quick, Amy also has Quick Pages to grab as well. 

Creative Space: Dino Birthday Card

Happy Friday!! Weekend is just hours away. Whoo Hoo! I'd like to share with you another card I made last weekend. I LOVE JW Illustrations cliparts and stamps, where I get this cute dinosaur from. Can't get enough of them!Isn't this a cute card for a little one's birthday! I know MY boy loves it! I made a pair but surely I can make more :-) One of them will be available shortly in my shop.

See what others make in our creative spaces. Lots of fun, I tell ya!

Creation of the Week: Bountiful Flowers

I have been busy making cards, as you can tell.

And I just LOVE making cards with flowers. Flowers here. Flowers there.

And yet....I still can't get enough of them.

This weekend I'll be busy working on custom orders. However, this time I'll be working on boys' cards. I'll be sure to share with you once I've done them.

Creation of the Week: Patchy Patch

I'm all about using paper scraps up to tiny pieces. I think it's because I love papers so much and I hate throwing them in a waste bin.

A while back I posted how I use these scrap papers to the fullest here. This time, I'd like to share beautiful cards made of scrap papers.

I had so much fun making these patchy patch cards. Each scrap paper was stitched to the other as I imagined myself quilting. :-)

These cards are not available in my shop, sadly. They are one-of-a-kinds and are part of the recent wholesale order I was working on. Nevertheless, I'm planning to make a few more of these patchy patch cards as afterall... I have a LOT of scrap papers.

More Cards

Just quickly sharing cards that I made last week. Some are listed in my shop, while others to follow.

I think making 7 cards for a week while I have a full -time job (a total of 11 hours including commuting, 5 days/ week), a toddler to raise, and a house to maintain, on top of keeping my sanity, is quite an accomplishment, don't you think? Oh...and I have 2 Etsy shops to maintain...

I tried forcing myself to stay up late every night to do what I need to do to maintain my shops, but I realized that if I keep forcing myself, I'm simply taking the fun out of cardmaking. That simply beats the purpose, doesn't it?

So tonight, I'll try to be in bed by 10pm at the latest, and hopefully by doing this, I'll re-charge myself and can stay up a bit late on the weekend.

I'm curious to know how do you manage your days? Share some tips, will you?

Hoo Hoo Owls Everywhere

Do you love owls as much as I do?






Aren't they just TOO adorable? They are available at my shop.

Have a happy weekend.

Searching For My New Partner In Crafting

I'm not a professional seamstress. In fact, I consider myself a novice. You probably won't believe that since machine stitching seems to be one of the trademarks on my cards. Well, certainly I've been sewing for a couple of years, paper sewing that is but I just realized that I've been 'playing with this such a cute sewing machine toy' instead of really sewing. Lol.

This cute little machine worked really well, at least IMO. It costs me less than $20 (bought at Michaels with 40% off coupon). However, most reviews that I read on-line said the opposite.
Anyway, it's time for the machine to retire. It still works but I cannot have it to work in a full capacity, demanding it to stitch the next hundreds cards or so.

This next sewing machine is bigger in size and yet it's still a portable sewing machine. I tried to work it with paper but so far I haven't had any luck to find the trick to make it work. I cannot really blame the machine, after all it worked well for my friend whom I bought it from. She managed to stitch a sofa cover and many more. Very impressive!

I think it's just me: lack of knowledge and patience. When I found out that I need to put a bobbin underneath, I was puzzled. I threw the question out on twitter, why. The answers made me realized how silly my question was to them. I do appreciate their helpful answers though and won't stop asking questions as there is no dumb question, right? The reason that I was puzzled was because this is new to me. The little toy sewing machine doesn't have a bobbin underneath (see picture above).

Or maybe this medium size sewing machine simply won't work well on paper? It's not invented for stitching papers afterall. It runs too fast, doesn't give a straight stitching as I expected and I have to re-thread after finishing every single card.

I'd been eyeing my parents' sewing machine that they had it for years already. It was hidden on its built-in table where my parents put a pot of flower on top of the table, a sign that they don't use it very much. My dad occasionally uses it for mending purposes. They bought it a garage sale for CAD$14. Such a steal! It's Singer and it's a REAL standard size sewing machine. I always wanted to give it a try but I hesitated to do so in the beginning. I thought it must be harder to operate it than the little sewing machine I had. Bigger machine seems to be more complicated since they have more buttons and options to choose etc and such novice like myself, I just need a simple basic one.

A couple of days ago, I had the courage and decided to give it a try, especially after knowing that it can do zig-zag stitching (FANCY in my opinion, LOL), something that I've been wanting to do for the longest time. There is no manual but good thing my dad showed me how to use it. He's been very helpful. Plus, Youtube is very handy! Got to give them some credits for providing the tutorials.


After a few trial and error, I finally could make it work to my satisfaction. Yipee!

I LOVE zig-zag stitching. It gives a much more additional nice touch to my cards. So, expect to see more of them at my shop.

One of these new cards is listed on my shop. More will be listed soon as I finally found my new partner in crime :-)

I'm Getting There

Although the next moving to a place we can call our own is still on the plan and yes, eventually we have to do the moving again and I prefer that it'll happen sooner than later, we still need to unpack and organize our stuff for the time being living at my parents' house.

So yesterday I asked my Mom if I could take over the formal dining table as my temporarily craft table. We barely use it anyway as we eat at the dining table, the one at the kitchen.

Here is the table when my stuff was still all over the place.

And now it's much better.

The papers that you see on the table are the only papers I have now. If you're a paper addict like me and cardmaking is your passion, then you'll agree with me that it's just so sad :-( But you would also agree with me not too worries as they are easily accumulated. My paper inventory is still waiting for me in Indonesia. Soon or later, we'll be reunited. LOL. We'll figure out a way without breaking the bank.

In fact, I had a chance to make a card today. Just one finished card, unfortunately. I encountered stitching problem, oh how I miss my tiny little machine (you can see it here). While others gave bad reviews, I am on the other hand gives it a two-thumbs up. I'll write more on my solution to the stitching problem in a couple of days, once I really get it solved :-)

Just For You

I made this card last night and I really like how it turns out. The colors are fresh, the design is simple and yet elegant. This card is perfect for female and male genders.

Hope you like it.

When Paper Met Felt

Here is my love story...when my love of paper and felt collides... :-)

While my addiction to papers never ends, I'm always flattered by felts. They are pretty, good to look at and nice to feel. It's something to do with its texture and versatility. I adore those kawaii stuff made with felts, but with so little time I have, I don't think it's possible to explore making other crafts at this time.

So, what I did was to create my cards using felts as an embellishment. The possibility is endless. Paper and felt ... they perfect for each other.


Now, it's time to get back matchmaking them again :-)

To see more of these cards, please visit my AdoreByNat store.

Not Ready To Say Goodbye

The only paper trimmer that I ever have has worn out. She has accompanied me ever since I started this cardmaking hobby. I'm kind of sad that I have to say goodbye to her anytime soon. I brought her all the way from Canada along with other cardmaking tools and supplies. I also brought an extra set of blades for future use and sadly they're dull now. To my surprise, the last blade did not last quite long. I think it's because the line where the blade goes through to cut paper is not smooth anymore. Apparently all this time, I'm not only cutting papers but the trimmer itself. I think it made the blade dull faster than it should have. I asked my Mom to bring more blades when she came here last October. Silly me, I gave her wrong information and she bought the wrong blades. :-(

It's time to buy a new one. The problem is that I can't go to a local scrapbooking store to get a new one since there ISN'T any. I have to shop on-line and the shipping cost to Indonesia can be very expensive.

Here is a paper trimmer by Making Memories which I love to have. I'm just not sure if I'm ever going to have it.
I went to a bookstore today to look for a paper trimmer. There is only one available and it costs about $80 and I'm not familiar with the brand. It's made in Japan which is supposedly good. I need to do more research on the product and its manufacturer and need to do this sooner than later or I have to stop making card. So many tools I have and yet this is the only one that can keep me going...or not.

New Cards

Just made them today! Remember those papers that just arrived about a week ago? I finally was able to enjoy using them. Fun fun Fun!

These papers are so gorgeous that I want to make sure they stand out among the 3D flowers.

Techniques used: machine stitching for the border, hand stitching with floss and flower, circle and scallop punches. Happy Birthday phrase is handstamped.





If you want to purchase them, they will be available at my ETSY shop. Or simply let me know by leaving me a comment.