Wednesday, 10 February 2016

Sending Love via Flying Suitcases

The idea of "sending you some love" came to my mind one day that evoked me to think of adding wings to suitcases. Again, I was getting obsess with suitcases but this time round with a little whimsical fantasy thought.


As a sequel on my mini matchbox suitcases tutorial; I'm showing a start to finish video in how to add wings onto these cute little matchbox suitcases for this Valentine's, notably using the matchbox from Tim Holtz's matchbox L die. With a pair of wings, it makes sending some love a much easier process.



To send some love, I added some miniature love sentiments within; such as a miniature bouquet of red roses, a vintage necklace, a bottle of love seeds (aka saga seeds as symbol of love) and a mini wooden heart peg. Those little word sentiments in front of the suitcases actually came from the 6" x 6" patterns and solids which there're a lot of phrasings you can use as your love message. Feel free to add any of your favourite love sentiments within and let these flying suitcases send your love to your loved one. One idea for those who are proposing - you might want to pop a ring within.





List of Supplies:


Monday, 8 February 2016

It's February!!

Oh yeah! I know it's February!! The month of LOVE is here. Pardon me as I was really busy again due to the Chinese New Year season that's happening this week. There's a lot of spring cleaning to do. As much as I'd want to spare some time to craft, unfortunately time is really limited. 


Moreover, my Instagram account was being hacked a few nights ago and this seriously didn't make my evening any better. I was away for my shower, just 15 minutes away and I was back with tons of Instagram notifications on my iPhone which was really abnormal. I was wondering who are these people? Suddenly people are obsessed over my Instagram. As I logged into the app my feed was greeted with tons of nude and obscene pics with a link beneath each pic for an invitation to have sex with me. These images kept posting at every few minutes and my fingers weren't fast enough to delete everything. This was seriously insane!!! For over an hour or two, I became an overnight Instagram porn star and was being pimped. This explained why I had a sudden surge in likes and followers.

Thankfully, someone FB messaged me about this. Anna DÄ…browska, Finnabair also dropped me a kind message. Oh I was so thankful!! Luckily I was able to reset my password at the end of the day as I wasn't able to change my password initially. I was also being reported by some users which I can totally understand 'cos those pics were really inappropriate. The entire ordeal that was happening on my Instagram was so awful that some of my followers have to unfollow me. Finally at the end of the day I managed to rectify the issue and deleted all the pics away. Now everything is back to normal.

There's really no way to stop this kind of stuffs from happening and it seems that these people are out to to hijacked other users' account to sell sex which eventually will lead to your account being deleted permanently by Instagram. Though I was quick enough to address the issue immediately and manage to keep my account, I wasn't able to report this matter to Instagram. I'm not sure what will really happen to my account in the future but I do hope I won't get implicated by the laws or whatsoever. I'd suggest for all Instagram users to change/reset your password to a much stronger one to prevent this kind of incident from happening.


Sunday, 31 January 2016

My January Tag for Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2016

Doing up tags is seriously not really one of my cores. I can take days to complete one tag, though tags are the most easiest to do. Don't get me wrong, I do love tags and I do really want to love making them whenever I could. Just that my creative brain cells are just not that tag friendly. 


Sooo, I heard about Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2016 and he will introduce some really cool techniques every month and encourage the community to participate. For someone like me struggling to make tags at some point of time, participating in this kind of activity sounds good to me. Plus, with some "technical rules" to follow, this really saves me the hassle to think. Taking it as another learning curve for me, I'm taking this challenge and here is my take for the January tag...


Quite a pretty last minute project, but better than never...

Oh well, guess I've overdone it yet not exactly using the techniques outlined as there's quite a number of stuffs I don't have, yet I've tons of Tim Holtz stuffs. So I gotta improvised given the limited amount of time I had. Instead of using the foil tape, I used Tim Holtz's kraft-core gold metallic cardstock for the industrious metal technique.




Added quite a number of embellishments, and as soon as I noticed it this is my very first masculine tag!!! Can't help it, how can I miss out gears to match the industrious look? I just need to add some gears.


Despite having so many mixed media stuffs, I don't have any of Ranger's embossing powder. Hah! Tricky! And this left me with not much choice left but to work within what I have. Instead of using the chalkboard technique with stamping, I applied it with embossing instead. And it turned out pretty well! The fussy me just don't like the idea of  leaving the back of the tag as it is, as usual I'll cover and do something to complete the look.



A tag that speaks much about my vision in life. Just nice for this January 12 tag thingy by Tim Holtz, Nice start and I believe it's all about re-learning and imagine the impossible. 

List of Supplies:

Friday, 29 January 2016

Some Updates and Some Stuffs in my Store

I think it has been "x" number of times I've been "MIA-ing" for a while then came back with new projects and maybe some updates. Yes I'm pretty inactive since last July as I was constantly caught up with loads of life issues; mainly on the various major changes in both my life and family. 

Little do you know, I was actually going through a tough marriage and was (and still) in midst of separation and divorce since end of 2014. Plus my parents' health are not doing well in particularly for my dad who is at very high risk of getting a stroke. Over the last weekend, my dad was admitted to the hospital as he suddenly couldn't control his movement, collapsed and fell twice - on streets and at home. He was so distraught that he suddenly became a baby, cried in despair as he lost control of his bowel and wet his pants. After a series of MRI scan and labs tests, we got to know he was actually infected with Influenza A virus and the neurologist managed to discover a teeny weeny blood clot in one of his brain vessels. Though the clot is not life threatening enough to cause any physical stroke symptoms, his doctor got him started on aspirin. He was infected with the flu bug and why was he so weak that led him to lost control of himself is something doctors unable to explain to us.

Well, my dad is on cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar control medication. This really speaks how unhealthy my dad is. He is on so many medications that I think it's a little overkill. As I look into the various medications he's taking (very seriously for the very first time), I got to realize the various side effects of these drugs he is taking. One of them in particular (though rarely reported) has an effect on skeletal muscle tissues which the drug will break down the muscles tissues. Perhaps it's the constellation of various medications he has been taking plus the attack of flu bug made him so vulnerable. Though I'm not a trained doctor, I feel strongly that such drugs should be prescribed with care. There has been a huge misconception that patients can totally rely on medications without realizing that these are drugs, and drugs have side effects. They are not elixir or some sort of wonder drugs that can prolong a person's lifespan, unless you are in a condition that you need to be then that's a total different story. A lot of effort has to be made on the patients' side (often on diet and regular exercising) to ensure they are not fully dependent on drugs but using them to assist their current health condition. This is something a lot of us have been taking for granted, unfortunately.

Life wasn't that fantastic for me for year 2015 and the beginning of this year but despite all hurdles I managed to overcome them, one by one. Though it seems that the path ahead is tough, there's always a bright side that I can always look forward to such as creating more exciting projects and be able to share with all of you. 


Oh well, I know this has been a long wait and finally I manage to get it done and make it available. I know some of you are really looking forward for this and I hope this don't come in too late. My STACK SUITCASES tutorial is FINALLY available at my Etsy store! Phew! After a year plus?!?Alright I know it has been quite a long wait. But trust me, I'm probably someone who is able to provide  tutorials with such clarity together with loads of illustrations and photos. 

Tutorial Sample Pages

I don't take short cuts and will make an effort, put my very best to illiterate every step as clear as possible.  For those who had purchased my Suitcase Treasures PDF tutorial, you get to notice a lot of illustrations are digitally drawn by me so that you know exactly what to measure, which paper to use and what to cut. A lot of effort put in and this explains why I charge my tutorials a little more expensive than most others. 


If you love building things, my tutorials are for you. Head over to my store HERE to get a copy. I shall talk to you soon. Have a great day ahead and happy crafting! Cheers!!!


Thursday, 28 January 2016

A Fairy Prayer's House

About a month ago, my previous Graphic 45 DT member Nichola Battilana shared her fairy lantern tutorial on Facebook which caught my attention. This practically gave me an idea what to do with some of my pixies diecuts which I've been thinking what I can do with these new Marianne Design dies I bought. 

Subsequently, my new Graphic 45 DT pack came and within my package there's some garden fairy chippies from Gypsy Soul Lasercuts. And I was thinking perhaps I could do up something with these little fairies. Very much wanted to do up some sort of prayer shrine/room/house. With the inspiration coming from Nichola's fairy lantern, I managed to do up this little fairy prayer house for this week's Graphic 45-Petaloo Blog Hop


“I Say a Little Prayer for You” was what came to my mind as I built this little house which is made out from the die-cuts of Eileen Hull’s canister XL Bigz. I’m not really a huge fan of purple (neither do I really hate this colour), but the purplish velvet Petaloo flowers literally won my heart. So…. I ended up using purple as the main colour for this prayer’s house using Graphic 45 Children Hour's March montage and calendar papers. 






I fixed a LED candlelight above and made a floral cap to cover the on-off switch. When needed to, just remove the floral cap, on the light and cover it back. When it is lit up at night it is exceptionally beautiful. This would make a wonderful little bedside companion at night.



May you have a peaceful night! I do hope this little project has brought you some joy! Happy Crafting!! Cheers!!