Piggy Calendar

It's never easy to organise all the photos on computer when you have got thousands of them! I finally managed to set up a network for the computers at home so that I can now easily file/organise the photos on my old laptop by using the "new" desktop.

While I was doing this, I came across many photos of items I made before which I almost forgot (or actually have forgotten!!) Here's a calendar I made for my ex-bf probably 8 years ago. The piggys could be taken off the calendar and used as decoration. I remember I made a portrait one with pandas for a friend as well.

Digital photos are good. They always look as good as new but I think it also surprises you how time goes so quickly when you think hard to realise when the photos were taken.

Orchid Buttonhole

I have been quite busy recently, moving home and helping my friend with her wedding. Not only I have been making her 5-tier wedding cake but also made some silk flower buttonholes for her. She thought about having fresh flower buttonholes initially but they are so expensive, and the design and flower choice of the cheapest option are normally very boring. When we went to hobbycraft to get ribbons for the wedding cake, we saw the purplely pink silk orchids which would be really suitable for her wedding colour scheme as well as her origin as she is Thai.

Therefore I offered to make the buttonholes for her. We collated some buttonhole photos on internet and she decided which design she wanted. Here we go, this is the final product! It's not bad, isn't it?

Not yet arrived: Mother's Day Card

This is the mother's day card I have made for my hubby's mother. I have to confess that I (we?) have left it a little bit late so it still hasn't arrived yet...... I hope it will arrive safely coz the mother's day card we sent a couple of years ago never arrived.

I bought the felt flower from Early Learning Centre after reading Sillybirds Stamping Diary. The felt flowers were an absolute bargain! 80p for a box of 8. Thanks Alex for sharing the info.

I will have to make another one for my mum and granny in May coz Mother's Day in Hong Kong is in May. I believe the May one is the American one. Why does HK celebrate Mother's Day in May even it used to be a British colony? Not a clue. I will have to put a lot of effort in to remember it coz there won't be any merchadise around to remind me!

I am Thanksgiving!?

You Are Thanksgiving

You are a bit of a homebody who enjoys being in the company of people you love. It doesn't take a lot to make you happy. You're enjoying life as it is. You have many blessings in your life, and you are grateful for each one. You believe that life is about what you *do* have. You feel like you have enough of the good stuff. What makes you celebrate: Family, friends, and the changing of the seasons. At holiday get togethers, you do best as: The host of the party On a holiday, you're the one most likely to: Spend so much energy preparing that it's a full time job

What Holiday Are You?

Made with Frustration

This card was made when I was getting frustrated making the burgundy Valentine's day card. Yep, it's pink but there is green on it as well!! I used my bargain See D's stamp and my newly purchased pattered paper and ribbon.

As my hubby's birthday is very close to Valentine's Day, I have decided to give the burgundy one to him for Valentine's Day and this one for his birthday, hehe. All sorted!

Getting organised: Valentine's Day Card

I haven't really done any stamping but recently I have discovered a lot of blogs and websites by people who have done brilliant work on stamping and card making. It has really got me going!! I made my hubby to take me to the localish Craft Central back in Jan to get some stamps. As it was still in the sale season, I managed to get some bargain!! I got this See D's stamp set for £2 and the tree one for £1. We went to HobbyCraft afterwards and I bought some more goodies.

After purchasing all these new stuff, I couldn't wait to try them out. I wanted to make a valentine's day without using my favourite colour pink. As I have got a lot of burgundy cardstock left from making the wedding invitation, I was determined to make a card with the burgundy card. I used the See D's stamps. The end result is alright but I am not too happy with it....

I guess I am kind of restricted as I have only got a few ink pads: gold, silver and burgundy. I think I need to buy more...... more retail therapy for me......

Happy Chinese New Year

This is the Chinese New Year card I sent home. I used to get my Chinese New Year card from Clinton but this year I decided to make my own one.

This is the peel-off I bought for this card. It's black but I painted it gold with a marker pen coz red and gold are the Chinese New Year colours.

I filled it in with bright colour metallic glaze pens and heat embossed the vase with gold embossing powder, as well as the edge of the card.

I posted it a bit late so it probably won't get in my family's hands in time..... but nevermind it's the thought that counts!

Steamed Bun Birthday Card

This is a birthday card for my granny in Hong Kong. It's kind of a Chinese tradition to have peach shaped steamed bun so I made some out of Fimo clay to make a card topper. She was really pleased when she received it and rang me 7:30 (UK Time) to thank me!

I coloured the "steamed bun" with chalk.

The "steamer" is even smaller than a 10p.

Retirement Card

This is a retirement card for my colleague. It's actually a loooooong card. When it's opened, it's basically like a concertina. The card was made this way to increase to area for people to sign because she worked for the organisation for over 20 years. The patterned card on it is Making Memories Embellishment Paper Cosmopolitan Collection which I couldn't resist to buy. There were different retirement quotes inside the card printed off the computer.

Meow~~

My hubby and I were really struggling to think of anything to get for his aunt for christmas. One day, I was browsing on internet and saw a festive cat shaped cushion which I thought it would be a good idea. Therefore I made a proposal to my hubby and it was an instant agreement.

I started of drawin the pattern based on an image I found on internet. The finished product has turned out surprisingly well.

Recycle

We have a lot of candle holders lying around at home unused from the wedding reception. I thought it would be a nice idea to decorate them and give them away as present! I didn't intend on making the little cat on it but the edge was chipped when I finished it so I made the cat to cover that up, LOL


This is my first attempt of making a simple clay cane.

Christmas Card Collection 2007

It was all an accident that this felt brooch was made. I was just messing around and cut a flower shape off the red felt. All of sudden I thought it would be a good idea to make a poinsettias brooch as a card topper.

I had the brooch pinned into a piece of fun foam and stuck it onto the card so the brooch could be taken off after. This card went to my parents-in-law.

Don't think I did very well with this card. The idea was a cat sitting on the window sill looking out. I didn't quite demonstrate it but I was proud of how the cat turned out. This went to my hubby's aunt.

Stamping on Fimo clay and dusted with pearlescent powder. This went to my brother-in-law.

One day all of sudden I remeber that I used shrink plastic when I was a small kid so I was then very keen on getting my hands on it again. Here I made a use of it to create some "pendants" by stamping the motifs on. This went to my hubby.

It's a GIRL!

I think this is the first card I created with the patterned card I couldn't resist to buy even though at that point I didn't know what I was going to do with it, LOL.

Our Wedding Invitations

This is a design I created for our wedding invitation. When we started planning, we had a look around to see what styles of invitation are on offer. We were amazed how poor the quality was for some cards. Only a few peel-off stickers stuck on a card and it could cost at least £1.50 each!!

We decided to design our own unique motif.

The top part of the motif is a Welsh Dragon and a Chinese Phoneix as my hubby is Welsh and I am Chinese. I also incorporated the Chinese character "double happiness" with our initials. I sent the desgin onto The English Stamp Company to make my unique motif into a rubber stamp. Here I went, started stamping and heat embossing!

The invitation for the reception in Hong Kong was red and gold as red is the wedding colour in Chinese tradition.


The smaller one is the invitation and the bigger one is the menu. You may notice there are like 10 courses on the menu. YES! This is what a chinese wedding reception like. 10 - 12 courses for a wedding banquet.

About a year after the wedding reception in Hong Kong, we had another one here in Britain. The venue was a lovely home-run hotel. Lovely ground, very british building. When I saw the main reception hall, the only colour came to my head was burgundy. I almost decided the design for the wedding reception at that instant.

More stamping and heat embossing again!

Very simple design so I could make it quickly. I managed to make just over 100 invitation in total in a fairly short period of time. Then I could go on and plan about something else!


Invitation for the wedding reception

Invitation for the evening reception

Father's day Card

I also struggle making cards for men. I had to hide all the pink paper when I was making this card but the result still looked quite girlie......

FIMO Birthday Card

This card was a birthday card for my father-in-law back in 2005. I used Fimo clay to make the card topper which I thought they looked rather nice!

Christmas Card Collection 2005

I did a little bit of stamping to create the card above. The background was generated on computer and just printed on normal paper.

This one is just a simple punch-out put together. I think this little christmas tree punch was one of the first punches I bought. The backing paper was some scrap paper I found somewhere and I hand-wrote Merry Christmas with a metallic gel pen. Doesn't look bad?

The fabric on this fluffy card is sofa fabric sample and some off cut I bought for a quid in a fabric shop. The ribbon and the leather thread were leftovers from other projects. TA DA! A fluffy christmas card!

When I made this card I was trying to be a bit more adventrous but it didn't work out as well as I hoped. It looks a bit bland, doesn't it?

Retirement Card

This card is probably one of the first cards I make after living in Britain. It was my hubby's aunt's retirement and we were "reminded" to send her a card.

Receving the "order", I went around all card shops to find a perfect card for the occasion. But no luck at all, they were either too cheesy for our taste or too expensive!!! So I decided to make one myself. I actually didn't have a clue what to do because it's not that common to give a card when people retire in Hong Kong.

I pulled out my limited craft tools and started mucking around. What in the picture was what I put together. It's not brilliant but it looks alright, hehe.

Little Bears

It must have been 7 years ago when I made this for a friend as a new year gift. I only made a blue one initially but then my friend said he was a bit lonely so I made a pink one for her as well. When it came to my friend's birthday, I made a little birthday cake to go with them.

Don't they look sweet?