Bon Appétit

On the Sunday of my first weekend back in Singapore (the 28th of April), my younger brother from another mother invited my auntie, uncle, cousins and me to what he called “A Stout Brunch” at his home. He explained that it was like a champagne brunch but with stout instead. He’s a chef from high places so I wasn’t going to argue! I had spent the evening before with his older brother sipping on flavoured margaritas till the early hours of the morning. Because I was drinking the night before, I skipped my usual evening medication and consequently, I was a tad worse for wear that morning in terms of pain. However, there was no way in God’s once green, now polluted earth that I was going to cancel brunch. I did think that it might end up being a short catch up though.

Brunch was amazing with bacon, eggs, baked beans, toast and the tomatoes which somehow sneakily traveled to my other mother’s plate. Sneaky buggers, those tomatoes! There was much love and laughter with amazing people whom I hadn’t met for 7 long years. And it was great meeting his partner and kids whom I’ve never met. Even told his partner that if he did anything dumb, it could partly be my fault cos when he was much younger, his brother and I accidentally dropped him on his head! Oops!

My uncle and auntie kept checking if I was ok but I am so grateful that the pain remained manageable for longer than I expected. Maybe the Pina Colada and some “refreshing” Midori and lime concoctions helped! We were even entertained by an impromptu concert put on by his kids. I was grinning so much my cheeks hurt. It reminded me of all the times my cousins and I performed for the family at various family events when we were kids, trying to “extort” money from the adults to fund an expedition for the cousins.

The party may have lasted for a whole 7 hours, but the memories and the feelings of love, togetherness and fellowship will stay with me for a long time, if not forever. Ironically, Facebook reminded him that we were out together exactly 10 years to the date too!

This card is a tad late, but I think it’s never too late to thank someone when they have done something so sweet and created such amazing memories.

Image: From Cute Digi Bundle by Lee Holland Art

I would like to submit this card for the following challenges:

Outlawz Twisted Thursday – May 23 – June 5 – Anything Goes

Outlawz Festive Friday – May 31 – June 13 – Anything Goes

Crafty Catz – Challenge #464 – Anything Goes

Colour Crazy Challenge – Week 20 – Anything Goes Colouring

Penny’s Paper Crafty Challenge – Penny’s Challenge 432 – Anything Goes

Jo’s Scrap Shack – FFC #284 – Anything Goes

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – Challenge #27 – Anything Goes with “critter”

Crafty Animals – Challenge #27 – Anything Goes

Until my next project, Happy Crafting!

When Words Are Not Enough

I just got home from an 18-day all expense paid trip to Singapore. All because my beloved cousin wanted me to experience watching Phantom of the Opera live. It was an amazing trip spent with so many loved ones; my heart feels overwhelmed and my eyes fill up in gratitude. I have so many people to thank so I’m on a mission to make thank you cards for the people who took the time to make special moments and memories with me.

I just completed the first of many for a special person who’s like my adopted mother. We shared many laughs and she made some tough times more palatable.

For this card, I experimented with distress inks. I’ve had them sitting in my ink tin for a while, but I’ve never taken them out to play with them. I cut out a background image using my Brother Scan and Cut machine and used that as a stencil. I find that I’m pretty happy with the result considering it’s my first go at distressing!

Image: Mouse with Rose by Lee Holland Art
Background Cut File: Background Bundle 1 by Birds Cards

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Outlawz Twisted Thursday – Anything Goes with Option of Using 3 Squares

Colour Crazy Craft Challenge – Anything Goes Challenge #18

Crafting With An Attitude – Challenge #51 – Anything Goes

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – Anything Goes but Must Have a Critter #26

Colouring in Scrapland – Anything Goes May Challenge with Optional Flowers

Crafty Calendar – May – Distress It

Alphabet Challenge – D is for Distressed Inks Paper

Jo’s Scrap Shack – Fun-Day Friday Challenge #282 – Anything Goes

Crafty Friends Challenge Blog – Anything Goes Challenge #110

Crafter’s Castle – Anything Goes Challenge #17 with Option to show what I colour with – Copic Markers

Outlawz Festive Friday – Anything Goes

Fabrika Fantasy – Challenge # 30 – Animals

Friendship Challenge – Challenge #41 – Animals

Until my next project – Happy crafting!

Superhero Mum

I’ve spent the last few days trying to sort out an idea in my head. I wanted to create a special Mothers’ Day card for a very special person. Nothing short of giving it my all would do. I had an idea for a superhero theme because I wanted the card to look fun and make her smile. Cos knowing me, the inside is gonna be soppy! 🙂

I wanted to use my favourite superhero digital stamp because my auntie is totally badass and is a superhero in every way, but I was worried that it might unintentionally offend due to its sassy (and sexy!) nature. I thoroughly enjoyed colouring the image, but then when I was done, I stared at it blankly for hours. A few panic attacks later, I realized that she knows that I have my cheeky moments and will take it the way it’s meant to be – cheeky.

I still didn’t have any ideas for the layout of the card, so I went looking for sketches. I couldn’t find anything that appealed in this instance, so I finally decided on a comic book (ish) layout. Unfortunately, the brain fog was bad. Creating the digital elements took me hours because my brain just couldn’t remember simple processes that I had done a gazillion times before and I had to consult my trusted friend, Google!

Finally at about 4 o’clock in the morning, it all came together and here it is!

Image: Super Spandex by Illustrations by T
Papers: Superhero Digital Paper Pack by LaLavanderiaDigital

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Cardz TV – Anything Goes Challenge #87

Colour Crazy Craft Challenge – Week 15 – Anything Goes

Festive Friday Challenge – #FF0032 – Mother’s Day And/Or Pink

Outlawz Festive Friday Challenge – Apr 19 – May 2

Scrapper’s Delight – April 2019 – Anything Goes

Penny’s Paper-Crafty Challenge – #426 – Anything Goes

Outlawz Twisted Thursday – Anything Goes / Fleur de Lis – Apr 11 – Apr 24

Crafting With An Attitude – #50 – Anything Goes

A Place to Start – Mid-Month Anything Goes with Optional Twist

Colouring in Scrapland – April 2019 – Anything Goes

Until my next project! 🙂

Baby in a Blue Dress

Sometimes things just work out and an idea in my head actually translates onto my project. That is what happened with my latest project which I named Baby in a Blue Dress.

Baby in a Blue Dress
Image: Big Eye Girl Sorry Sally Image No. 205 by Oddball Art Co
Papers: Celebration in Pink Champagne by AMB Illustrations

For this card, I used Sketch Saturday’s Sketch #245.

I would like to enter this project into these challenges:

Outlawz Progressive Challenge – April 2019

Di’s Digi Designs Challenge – Make It Girly

Digi Choosday Craft Challenge – Anything Goes Challenge

As You Like It Challenge – Favourite Colouring Medium (Copic markers because they are easy to blend seamlessly and faster to colour than coloured pencils)

Oddball Challenge – April Oddball Challenge

Outlawz Saturday Paper A La Mode – March 30 to April 12

Outlawz Festive Friday – April 5 – April 18 – Birthday

It’s a great feeling when everything comes together.

Till my next project! 🙂

When the Mojo Takes a Hiatus

Misha Collins recently posted that it was the first day of his last hiatus from filming Supernatural – my absolute favourite show. However, it seems that my creative mojo has decided that he needed some company!

I think most people who create encounter dry spells in some form or other (I truly envy you if you don’t!) I’ve always been an extremist, being at either one end of a spectrum or the other, and rarely in between (although I am trying to learn to step into the grey). My creativity – sadly – isn’t an exception. Some nights my brain is bombarded with a myriad of ideas, like an overflowing river – so fast that my hand can’t keep up with it as I scramble to grab my pencil and paper and scribble furiously, trying my best to write my ideas down in a manner that will still make sense come morning.

Then there are times like now – when ideas are like the smattering of trees in an otherwise dry and barren region of the Australian outback in the height of summer. I have discovered that very often, these times usually coincide with having a lot on at the time. My theory is that my left brain goes into overdrive (think Turbo after NOS) and my poor right brain is left in the dust (Turbo before NOS). However, extended periods spent not creating and crafting puts me on edge and makes me really restless, some might even say irritable *coughs and splutters*. It’s at times like these that I look for some NOS for poor Turbo stuck at the starting line, and I find it in the form of card sketches.

Card sketches are like blueprints for cardmaking. It shows the layout of the card and where elements such as card, mats (if any), patterned paper, ribbon and borders go. I find that breaking down a card to its bare bones helps me a lot because I only make one decision at a time and then further build on the selected option. Some days I still struggle with this thanks to the brain fog that most of us receive as a free gift with compliments from fibromyalgia (we’d absolutely love to return it if we could), so breaking decisions to chihuahua-sized bite pieces such as, “square card or rectangle card?”, “embossed or not?”, “this paper or that?” helps me tremendously as I feel like I am moving forward, even if it’s only by a fraction of an inch.

There are many blogs already devoted to card sketches. A simple search in a search engine or on Pinterest would bring up a host of possibilities, but these are the ones I keep coming back to. I’ll try to remember amidst the brain fog to update this list if I find more that I use.

• The Outlawz Challenges
• My Favorite Things
• I Need a Sketch
• Sketch Saturday
• Operation Write Home

The past week has been really hectic in my head, and although I got a lot of colouring done and created toppers for cards, my list of cards to make for family for Easter, Mother’s Day and other occasions wasn’t getting any shorter. I flipped through some sketches and found one that spoke to me at the time. And what do you know? I’ve struck my auntie’s birthday card off my list and this is the end result.

Birthday Bear
Bear Digi Stamp – Teddy Bear Picking Flowers by The Paper Shelter, coloured with Copics
Patterned Papers – Echo Park Springtime Paper/Elements Pack 1 and Pack 2

I’d like to enter this project for the following challenges:

Use Your Stuff Challenge #353 – Fuzzy Wuzzy

Papercraft Challenges #34 – Polka Dots

Papercraft Challenge #17 – Anything Goes

Outlawz Saturday Paper A La Mode (Mar 30 – Apr 12) – Non-rectangle Card

That old adage – “Fake it till you make it”? Sometimes that is exactly what I do. Guess some old wives were wise after all, and no, I didn’t mean me! 🙂

Till my next project!

How I Find Myself the Creator of a Blog

I’ve been colouring and cardmaking for a while now. Creating allows me to be in my happy place. I deal with a whole host of health issues – both physical and mental – and crafting gives me the endorphins I am obviously lacking when I’m down or overwhelmed.

I don’t claim to be an expert, quite the opposite, in fact! I see so many cards on Pinterest, other blogs and challenge sites that it can seem pretty daunting. It seems as though my cards are made by a kid in comparison to countless others I’ve seen. And I’m a very harsh critic of my work. However, I have to acknowledge that I have improved by leaps and bounds from when I first started cardmaking and colouring as an adult. And a very wise person consistently reminds me that the fun of creating is in the journey – the process – and not the destination – the finished product.

In being mindful that every person is on their own creative endeavour and not to compare finished outcomes, I have started to enter online challenges a lot more. The next logical step seemed to be starting a blog, not only to help me keep track of the challenges I’ve entered my cards into, but to hopefully also be able to provide some encouragement to others who are just starting out on their creative road trip.

I look forward to sharing my work with you – the good, the bad and the ugly!