Happy October! I had the chance to sell my cards and mini-scrapbook albums at the Nikkei Centre's Fall Harvest Fair last week. It was a great event and filled with lots of fun activities at their Open House! I received a few custom orders, so here is one of the projects I created. It is a feminine Geisha album with cherry blossoms, Graphic 45 Birdsong paper and DCV Far East paper. I kept it simple so the pictures can really pop!

Some new cards

Hello again,

It's been a very creative time for me over the last year. Although I haven't had a chance to post pictures, I've been super busy and productive. I've really enjoyed playing with my scrapbooking supplies and making cards and mini-albums. Here are a few of the latest cards I've designed.  Enjoy!

Exciting News!

Hi Everyone,
I am so happy and very excited to share my news with you! I have been asked to produce some of my Asian cards for a giftshop at one of our local Chinese gardens. The Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden's giftshop wants to sell my cards! A friend of mine was visiting the gardens and talking to the giftshop manager when one of my cards fell out of her book. The giftshop manager was interested in carrying my cards, so I contacted her and brought a sample of my cards for her to view. Well, as of next week, the general public can now buy my cards! I'm pretty stoked. :)

Tea time

Tea anyone? It was a cold but beautiful day today. Watching my daughter play outside was fun, but bone chilling. I certainly enjoyed my cup of tea when we got home. :) Hope you had a great day with your families!

Thoughtful Thursday

Time to stop and be still as it is my day off today. :) I came across this post and thought I would share it with you.
http://www.bemorewithless.com/2012/be-wonder-full-mini-mission/

I love her ideas on how to make this day a day full of wonder. Enjoy!

Paper Piecing

I recently bought the Pagoda cartridge for my Cricut machine. I love the images that come with this cartridge!!! I created a framed piece with the bamboo, bird, fan, and flower images and pieced them onto some coloured cardstock to keep the effect simple. I added some buttons for some more texture to the project. :)

Play Date Cafe Colour Challenge

I used the PDCC colour challenge to create this Asian inspired all-occasion card. I love this colour combination!  I would send this card for a birthday or a thank you card for a dear friend. :)

Seeing Red

Hello, and Happy Lunar New Year! I've been working on some cards and projects the last few weeks, and am so happy to be posting on my blog again. It's been a busy time getting used to having a little one at school and balancing life with work and parenting. The crafty time that I can carve for myself is really special and allows me to feel like my own person again!

Here is a project that I made for adoptive families. I love that children are born in their parents' hearts from the first moment that parents conceive the notion of building their family through adoption. So I used my heart punch to punch out some hearts from Asian scrapbooking paper to display this love of parent to child. Hope you like it!

First Day of School

My daughter turned 5 this summer, and so she starts school this year!!! Her first day of Kindergarten was on Tuesday when she went for a 30 minute visit. Later this week, we will go in for a welcoming conference with her teacher. She is super excited to be starting school as she will be learning Mandarin as part of her Kindergarten program. She will spend half the day learning in English, and the other half of the day learning in Chinese. How awesome is that!!!

To celebrate this momentous occasion, I sewed her a tote bag (as you can see in previous posts) and we also planted a Japanese Maple tree in our garden. Each September before school starts, we will take her picture beside the tree to mark her growth. Love the photo op!!

I also bought her a book to go into her library tote bag (The Night Before Kindergarten) and of course, I had to make her a card to go with the present! Here it is.

Library Tote Bag

Well, here it is!! I finished the tote bag this afternoon. I've even got a special gift to go inside. I bought a book called "The Night Before Kindergarten". We'll read the book on Monday night. Sunday night, I'm going to read the Kissing Hand and we'll make a craft based on the story, that she will be able to attach to her backpack to take to school. It will be a new family picture cut into heart shape which she will embellish.

My sweetie chose the butterflies and kitten to go on her tote. She would have loved a puppy, too. But I thought the tote looked pretty cute as it turned out. What do you think?

Work in Progress

My sweet little five year old is starting school on Tuesday! I am so excited, yet a little sad to see her go to Kindergarten. She is an amazing kid, and I look forward to the new growth and activities school will bring. So with that in mind, I am working on a project for her to mark the beginning of the school years. It is not exactly a paper project, but one that will be used for paper products... I'm making her a library tote bag for her school library books. She has a ton of books at home, and ones that we borrow from the public library. So I thought that a special tote bag would help her to keep the school books separate and organized from the other books. I went to the fabric store last week and picked out some cute fabrics I thought she would love. And she does! I've finished sewing the body of the bag, and have to attach the handles. As well, I've picked out some iron on appliques to embellish her bag. Here is a pic of the work in progress.

Sparkle and Shine!

Here's another card that I made up the other night at my LSS's crop night. It was sooo good to get out and create some cards. Creative Card Crew has a sparkle and shine challenge and I thought this card fit perfectly for the challenge. The cardstock has glitter and I added some bling to the dragonflies and the centers of the flowers. :) Hope you like it.

Color Throwdown Challenge

Hiya everyone,

It's good to be crafting again... it's been a while as the summer has been crazy busy!!! Here's a card I made for the Color Throwdown #107 Challenge. Enjoy. :)

time to catch up!!!!!

It's been a busy time the last few months!!!! We had a few vacation trips planned so as to take advantage of the relaxed summer schedule before the little one begins Kindergarten in Sept. We have had sooo much fun and it's been really rewarding!!!

Some projects I have endeavored to accomplish in this time - trip to San Diego, first camping trip as a family, meeting up with friends and catching up on long overdue playdates, starting piano lessons with the munchkin and some personal craft time fit in whenever possible. Also, there was a birthday party (or two or three) and of course the planning and preparation that goes with that. Road trips to see the inlaws who live 5 hours away, and some personal sewing projects to really bring joy to my sweetie.
I look forward to getting my sweetie into Kindergarten so I can try to fit in some of the personal time I have not really been able to fit in this summer. Of course, I would not trade one minute of this summer for anything - except the strep throat which I thought was the flu for almost a week before I went to the doctor to confirm my illness.

Keep your eyes posted on the upcoming blog posts for new projects and inspiration!!!! Thanks for your patience!!!!

some new cards

Hi again. It's been a crazy busy month since I was able to get some crafting done!!! Here are a couple of new cards that I made with my new favourite paper by My Mind's Eye - "Penny Lane". It's good to get into the groove again!

I'm entering these cards in the Play Date Cafe Challenge for the colors Pale Yellow, Light Green and Pink. :) The cards are also entered for the Papertake Weekly challenge to use flowers on the cards. Hope you enjoy them.

re-draw for blog candy

Hi! I haven't heard from Carolyn, so I redrew the names for the blog candy using the Random.org site. Sharon, please contact me within the week so I can send you the prizes!

1. . Sharon W
2. Postal Orphan
3. Melody
4. Sheila
5. Carolyn
6. Gitana
7. Brenda

baby cards - adoption

Hello! I made a couple of cards today using SRM stickers for the baby sticker challenge on their blog. I was soooo happy to dig through my stash of stickers and find some SRM stickers to use for this challenge!!!

I used the SRM Adoption baby girl stickers for the first card, and their Family stickers for the second card. I created these cards with my little one in mind as we're coming up to our 4th anniversary as a family.

I used some pre-made patterned cards from My Mind's Eye that I found at Winners on the weekend. The images for the teddy bear and the butterflies were die-cut at my local scrapbook store at my Friday night crop. And the gemstone stickers are from Forever in Time. The heart brads are from Recollections. I used a googly eye for the snout on the teddy bear! hehehe! Finally, I used my Marvy border punch and my cuttlebug to add more interest to the cards.

I've also added these cards to the Paper Take Weekly Challenge. :)

Ladybug Shower Invitation

Here is a card I made for a baby shower invitation. I tried to keep it clean and simple, as per Lucy's card challenge. I love the bright, cheerful ladybugs! They are my favourite bugs, next to butterflies!

Ladybug stamp from Hero Arts
Invitation stamp from SonLight Impressions

Easter Cards

My friend at work asked me to make her some Easter cards. So here are is the set of cards I put together for her. I used the imaginisce d/p, easter paper by bo-bunny, and stickers from the dollar store. I used my new nestabilities "labels 12" to cut out the focal image and matted c/s. And, of course, I used my marvy punch for the scalloped border.

Prize Giveaway Today!!!

Hi Everyone,

I used Random.org to help draw the names for the prize giveaway today!

There were 7 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Carolyn
2. Brenda
3. Sharon W
4. Sheila
5. Postal Orphan
6. Gitana
7. Melody

Timestamp: 2010-03-27 15:58:01 UTC

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and joined the blog!!! Carolyn, please send me an email with your contact info so I can send you the goodies!