Personalized Alternative Wedding Guestbook Heart Petals with Stringed Names

This was what I made for guests to sign at my wedding back in April. It's an alternative to the traditional guestbook that I saw on Etsy. I decided to use the idea and make it personalized because I was on a budget. Also, I felt strongly about making something that I can then display as art rather than keeping a book that would probably go into storage sooner rather than later. Boy, was it a lot of work, but I was quite satisfied with the end result. The only thing I would omit are the smaller petals. It was hard to sign on because it was so tiny. I would also use stronger glue or not do a double layer of petals for some of the larger ones. I thought I would be able to get away with it by creating more writing space, but it turns out some of them started popping off because the spine didn't adhere well enough to withstand the wear and tear of people flipping through it.

My personalized touch is adding the stringed writing of our names with gold thread. This part was one of the most time consuming and took a lot of concentration. I don't know if I'd do that again anytime soon, but it did make it more special.

 I liked the coral/peachy tones coupled with gold, so I went with that. Gold is a favored color by Chinese culture, but unfortunately it wasn't enough to make my dad happy about not following tradition. Normally, we would put out a red handkerchief and have people sign that. I felt that it was tacky and what would I do with this napkin afterwards anyway?

This is what the poster looked like after everyone came through. I thought it would be fun to let it be colorful by leaving out pretty colored markers, but I believe permanent markers would've done a better job.









Sweet dreams,

Quilled Roses Wooden Heart Magnets

My baby shower will be on Oct 11th--guess who volunteered with a lot of the crafts? That's right, me!

One of the things that I'm working on are various quilled magnets. I know they aren't standard baby shower favors, but it'll be one of the last projects that I'll be working on for a while so I wanted it to be something different, yet special.

The magnet bases are wooden cut outs of hearts. You can find these in your local craft store. The background was decoupaged with pattern paper. The 3 small roses also has a strip of ribbon going across it, much like a pageant ribbon sash. I added glitter as a top coat for the dual purpose of sealing it and making it pop a little.

Since I easily get bored with mass producing the same style when it comes to projects, I will be making all different kinds. Stay tuned for more quilled magnets in the coming weeks!

Yay for the weekend! Enjoy!

Valentine's Hearts in a Vase Quilled Card

...And just like that we're almost a month into 2014!

January 31st marks Chinese New Year (lunar calendar). It's the year of the horse. Since the zodiac is on a 12 year cycle, the next year of the horse will not make it's next appearance until 2026!

I've been pretty bad with keeping up with things lately due to getting settled in and working on my wedding invites, but here, alas, is my contribution to current events in crafting...a Valentine's Day card!

There are 3 hearts that are acting like blossoms in a vase. I've taken a liking to swirling my foliage lately if you can't tell. :) The background is embossed with blocks of hearts from Cuttlebug and the sentiment was printed using my photo printer. It's a little hard to see it, but I also dabbed some glitter on the hearts for added effect.

Sending you all my best,

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Baby Boy Blue Blocks Card With Teddy

I thought I'd change up the genre a bit and take a short break from the holidays. :) This is a card that I made during the summer for my best friend who then brought it to Hong Kong for a mommy-to-be!










You can probably guess that this is to be for a newborn baby boy. I added a bib to the teddy bear and balloon hearts for added cuteness. :) I also went a little glitter crazy on this one. The glitter spray is by CC Interational. I coated EVERYTHING! lol








Have a great Thursday afternoon!

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Letterpress Happy Birthday Quilled Hearts Card

2nd week in Sept. and we're celebrating Peace, Love, & Happiness at Tuesday Alchemy. Want to know why? Have you ever heard of International Peace Day which is on Sept. 21st? Today is also the anniversary of 9/11 and so it's important to keep peace and love not too far from our minds. I live in NYC and was in high school at the time. Due to the massive panic we were sent home, but phones weren't working and no mass transportation was running. My bus ride was on average 40 minutes one way, so having to walk home was not on the top of my list of things I want to do when everything was crazy. It was already raining ash and pieces of debris, so air quality was terrible. The next day the city was closed down, so we got to stay home from school. It was scary walking down the streets for a very long time after that day. We had to be evacuated in school a few times after it as well while the SWAT team came in due to a few bomb scares. In my high school? Really? I do understand the precaution of better to be safe than sorry though, but that's an example of the high tension environment we experienced daily. I felt especially bad for those of my friends who covered their heads due to their religion (we're very diverse here) because they were continuously harassed on the streets and in school due to ignorance. Some either took off their hijab or persisted but had a miserable day to day life. Here's to hoping for a world without violence and peace, so people don't have to go through such ordeals in a civilized society. 

Sassy Studio Designs and LEJ Designs will be this week's sponsors are Tuesday Alchemy. Swing by and show us some L-O-V-E!

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Mother's Day Card--Blue Quilled Potted Flowers and Hearts

Mother's Day is a month away now! Here is another quilled mother's day card that I made today.  

Most of the card is quilled--potted blue flowers and red hearts. The heads of the flowers are fringed and the center is embellished with a dot of metallic puffed paint. The sentiment was printed using my laser printer in black.

This is the interior and the card is unfolded to show the front and back, below.

Card fits in a handmade blue box envelope.

What do you usually do with your mother? If you're a mother, how do you like to celebrate? My mother isn't much for celebrating. My brother and I usually buy her a stack of scratch cards (lottery) because she likes to try her luck. I make sure I get the longer games like Cash Word, so they last a while. :D

Good night fellow bloggers!

Quilled Pink Hearts Love Card

Okay, I lied...one more post today before the weekend starts! :D This is a card that I designed based on the sketch from clean&simple. I think it's always a good time to tell people you love them!

Flower, flourish, and 3 hearts are quilled in 4 different shades of pink! Scallop circle is made from pink pattern paper with a white cardstock circle on top. "LOVE" sentiment is a rub-on sticker. Cardstock base is Bazzill brand.

Now...have a great weekend! lol

Etsy

Wedding Invite Proposal # 1

 

In March, I was asked to help my friend, Jenny, create her wedding invitations for an October wedding. This proposal is 1 of a few that I came up with. Though we are moving in a different direction now, I wanted to upload some of my ideas.

I thought this design was very flexible for a bilingual wedding. The middle portion pulls out and you can use one side for English and in this case, the back was meant to be for the Chinese writing. 

I picked up a pack of these charms from Michaels. It didn't cost more than $2 from what I remember. All you do is string ribbon through the ring of the charm to attach. The ribbon is tied in the back.

Vellum is wrapped over the text portion and confetti (stars for this invite) were inserted. You can actually shake the stars around

Quilled Heart and Roses Card

 http://www.etsy.com/listing/74179235/quilled-heart-and-roses-card-for-many

I just listed this card on Etsy, so get over there and support me!!! It can be used for almost any occasion as this card's theme is so flexible. I ship quickly within the US!

Valentine's Day Card '09

Still rummaging through old files. Here's one from back in the day that's actually relevant to V-day!

The bottom was snipped off to show the wet embossed underlay, "Happy Valentine's Day," while the top portion of the card was sent through the Cuttlebug for a dry embossing run. The four corners of the top of the card were set with heart eyelets. Trim a small triangle for the flower wrapping paper and fill the empty space on top with prima flowers. Apply a drop of glitter glue to the center of the flowers, add bow and an extra tiny prima flower to the triangle to complete the flower bouquet.