Vietnamese Quilling

This, might take a while to read. I'm in the mood to write, thus you can expect a very long entry. Feel free to skip any part if you wish. :P

If this blog has an expiry date for a backdated entries, this one would've expired ages ago heh. I have the habit of leaving my items at the most unexpected places, and tend to misplace... almost everything. The photos from this trip were scattered in few different hard disks, so it took me a while to gather my favourite photos and put them up in an entry.

I went for a personal trip to Vietnam some time last year (told you it's been a while lol), and had the opportunity to explore the beauty of handmade crafts there. I was lucky to have a local guiding me around, and once she knew I was into arts and crafts, she brought me to all these wonderful arts/ craft places. It didn't take me long to realise that quilling artworks were sold EVERYWHERE. Not only the Vietnamese are able to produce quilling artworks in bulk and sell them on streets of Vietnam, they even export them to other countries!

I don't know much about Vietnamese Quilling so I'll leave it to you to find that out on your own (Mr Google, anyone?).  According to the local guide, quilling artworks can be found almost everywhere on the streets of Ho Chi Minh, and mostly targeted for foreign tourists, since the motives are very culturalistic - as in the recurring themes are Vietnam sceneries, tourist spots etc. Nature and animals are also the recurring motives in the quilling artworks. They even re-create some famous paintings into quilling forms too.
 

What amazed me most about Vietnamese Quilling was the thin paper strips used to make the design. They used as thin as 1mm paper strips to create the intricate designs. Mind-blowing! And I love how they shape the paper as well.

I shamelessly spent quite a sum for the artworks, so I could get inspired by them. I do have plans to go there again, and revisit all these wonderful places and learn them first-hand. One day, perhaps. :-)

Boyya the green crocodile

Introducing Boyya, the green crocodile.

He's a small creature the size of my palm, of which I found while trekking in Bukit Antarabangsa, Kuala Lumpur. NOT. Trekking and me will never mix haha.(I encountered him while doing Art is Enterprising workshop at Bukit Antarabangsa).

He's a lost soul, and I suspected that he simply forgot where he landed his spaceship. Boyya is a vegetarian, and loves tomatoes very much. He eats a lot of figgs too, without knowing that he's allergic to them - and causes the green spots on his body.

He'sa cheeky crocodile of a unique species, and there're only a few left in the world. He's a creature that craves for attention, and a little diva in his own green-ish way. Thus, I thought I should adopt him and made him a reluctant mascot for Miyyah@Kertas haha.

Hence, meet Boyya!

Pipit, the market

It was my first time going to a craft fair. And I had such a blast!  It was packed with people, and all the designers were so creative in decorating their small booths. Some goes for wow effects, some are cute, some attracted attention from far away, some hang banners, and some others prefer simplicity and put everything on the floor (which I think is simple, but successful in gaining attention as well).

I learned a lot from the Wonderful market, especially on how I should arrange my artworks, the unique display methods, and the eco-friendly packaging. I've left the market feeling so happy and hopeful. Perhaps one day I could open a booth at Pipit affair too eheh.

I thought I could share a few lovely things that I found at the 5th Wonderful Market. So these are some of the interesting snapshots that I found in the market.

These sock dolls are totally adorable. They looked as if they're smiling to the camera. :)



I love bird cages. And this one was decorated in fluffy red and black flower. Simple, and nice.



And this one is one of the miniature houses on display at Pipit's. Amazing details!



And I brought these cute cards back. I'm such a sucker for a sad girl on a rainy day. Do visit my facebook page for more photos on Pipit's Wonderful Market.



There is one thing for sure - Malaysia surely has some talented young designers! *Standing ovation*

It's in EVERLAND!

This message really made my day, and I think it deserves a mention here. I'm so excited to share this!

miyah, this tree reminds me of one of ur cards in your blog - the one with one small vase and tonnes of gorgeous, pastel quills. 

And she tagged me this photo:

She was, of course referring to this card:

You have no idea how excited I was! I basically gasped and shrieked with glee. The tree does exist! THE TREE IS REAL! And it does come in many different colours! OMG this made my heart skipped a beat. Or two.

On the downside, the tree wasn't really a grown tree with natural coloured leaves - they actually tied artificial flowers on the tree to made them that way. But isn't that crafty? And at least mine produced bubble gums, lollipops and icy lemonade  hehehe. Guess where she found the tree? In a theme park called Everland in Korea. Yes, EVERLAND - that's close enough to my Wonderland lalalalalala. Dreams do come true, ay? How awesome is that? :)

This dear friend is called Su, and she happened to visit Korea last month, and decided to snap this pic and tagged me on Facebook. Su, have I told you how much I love you for this? I seriously owe you one (will magnets be okay in exchange for making my day brighter?! - I know you'd love them hehehehe)

FOUND: Ribbons!

By now you probably have noticed my attitude of wanting everything in cheap prices haha (thus, the FOUND! section :P).

I was hunting for ribbons for some bulk orders, and I've been looking around for quite a while. I wanted those printed and colourful grosgrain ribbons, but they're either too bulky for my project or too expensive. Tried to search online, but nothing caught my interest. So I've started hunting down alternative ribbons (by lowering down my specification), and I would be happy if I can find ribbons that are of good quality, but cheaper in price. Yes, I know, I'm aiming too high LOL.

So, one sweet day I decided to try my luck at a nearby sewing shop. They have lots and lots of plain satin ribbon, and being a fussy craft buyer, it took a while to find what I want. Then, something at the darkest corner of the ribbon rack caught my eyes. It was the dustiest place of them all, and I had to wipe away the dust and finally found these:


[insert overdosed squealing here]

These 1 cm (in width) ribbons are simply perfect for my project! They came in multiple colours - green, yellow, pink, purple and orange. And guess how much are they priced?

RM5.80 per roll! (about 10 meters ++)

Okay, I'm just guessing that. Perhaps it's 10 yards. I don't bother to ask or to count haha. Even if I did, I know I wouldn't get the numbers right anyway. But I guess it's thick enough to be 10 yards anyway.


At first I only took what I need, but a few days after the first visit, I went back and took each in every colour hehe. By the time the pictures were taken, I've used up all my pink-coloured ribbons.


I'm not sure how many are left, but it's worth checking out. So for those in Shah Alam, head here fast, before the shop runs out of stock. :)


Found at: Kedai Alat-alat Jahitan You Mei, Seksyen 18, Shah Alam (nearby Mydin Hypermart, Shah Alam)
Sold at: RM5.80 each

Hurry up while stocks last!

*Updated on April 11, 2010: Thanks to a tip from my cousin Kak Ti, the same ribbons are priced at RM4.80 per roll (15 yards) and you can try digging them up at all Bake With Yen branches (Puchong, Petaling Jaya and Chowkit and Taman Tun).

2010 Calendar v 2.0

Hope it's not too late to wish everyone a happy new year! 2009 has been a fabulous year, and I'm really hoping that 2010 would take up a notch on the 'fabulous' adjective hehe.

After making the last calendar, I thought of making a few more, but at last, I could only manage to finish two - one for belated birthday present, and another for a friend who celebrated the 1st of Jan with me haha.

This one goes to the friend who celebrated the coming of New Year with me by watching Avatar 3D (which was really cool), and who always cheered me up by stuffing ourselves with food every time we meet haha.


I made this using all of my favourite colours again (earth colours), and with the thought of the one on the receiving end. The desk calendar came across looking a bit masculine haha, but I think it suited her perfectly - coz she's a tough woman with a strong heart and a very, very thick head haha.

In case you're wondering, I didn't make the centerpiece, it was actually from earrings which I found on sale at Jusco hehe. It was very cheap soo I bought some of them (in different designs - roses, butterflies etc), and pull out all the unnecessary parts of the earrings and use them for my crafts. Cool FOUND huh? (This time I would selfishly resist from telling the price haha)

This is the layout for all the upcoming months of 2010:


And it feels good to take a break from quilling once in a while hehe. I'm applying the same theme in all 12 months, and make use of the FOUND paper punch that I bought at Daiso last time. And this is how each card look like:


I'm no professional stamper, so I messed the papers up with uneven stamping and smudges all over the calendar haha.

But I still thought it's a beautiful mess, because it shows how much love I've put in making the whole thing. :)


And I apologize for the shadowy pictures - they were taken in a hurry at a very dim cafe, with a very outdated camera haha - but at least they came out pretty well hehe..


As you can see, each month sports similar design, but with slightly different arrangement to it.


And as you can also see, this calendar is also flooded with white buttons haha..


...just because I have plenty of them haha (done restocking black and white buttons).


And since I'm going green, except for the card stock for the base of the calendar and the pattern paper (again, it's actually wrapping paper), and the buttons, the rest were made from recycle papers - most are extras from previous crafts etc.


And the brown paper.. well.. it was from nasi lemak wrappers hahaha (unused ones :P)


The cardstock for the base of the card was actually grey in colour, and I use some splashes of olive green (my fav!) to the cards as well.


I like refering these as cards more than as calendar, because I think they can be reused as monthly birthday cards.


And I don't like repeating the 2010, so 2010 was only stamped once on the box, but were not stamped anyone on the individual cards.


Haha, when I see it - December was done in such a mess. The numbers looked like they're about to collapse LOL.


The above shows how the calender should stand on a working desk. And below is what I've written on the inside of the cover:


Yeah. It has always been an ugly handwriting, but it gets uglier these days heh. And the smug face below is the recipient of the calendar hehe.

Babe, can you believe we've survived this roller-coaster friendship for 18 years? How did that happen hahahaha...?!


p/s: Next time, let's do that Korean buffet, pizza, grilled chicken and that plentiful of desserts again!

(it's the backside of the calendar box. Still need to have a properly done rubber stamp)

Thank you

Dear readers,

Thank you for being patience.


I've been quite busy lately that it's hard to find time to update the blog. Or even the facebook. (will tell you soon enough about my current project). Anyhow, I'll keave with this simple card made of quilled flowers (yet again!).


The quilled flowers were pre-made so the making of the card took me less than 5 minutes to design. Currently my quilled flowers collection has amounted up to 200 pieces and they're of multi-colours. So it's definitely helpful when I need to make an instant card since I already have the pre-quilled items.

The word THANK YOU was stamped using alphabet stamps set that I bought at Popular Book Store, which only costs me RM12.50 - for the whole A-Z letters. It's very cheap, to compare to the ones sold at local craft store. I love the messiness the letters made hehe, so I'm definitely recommending the alphabets set to everyone. If you're a Popular card member, the current promotion would have the stamps set sold at 10% discount - so you can buy the set at RM11.25 each! (I just got my numbers stamps set today hehe with the same price)

Just a caution - not all Popular stores sell the stamps sets. I found mine at Popular Bukit Raja, Klang. Have fun hunting for the stamps!

The first car

I never bought quilling books before. Intend to, not only it's hard to find good quilling books, the available books are way overpriced, being the cheapest is around RM60 and the most expensive one is RM100++. So when I FOUND this book by Malinda Johnston was sold at a bargain price of RM24.90, I just had to buy the book. And it's the only one left on the shelf. Yes, I am excited!

(I bought this at MPH One Utama, so in case you're interested, try to find the book at other MPHs as well. Good luck!)

The book gives some great templates and it provides great ideas in improving my quilling skills. I've learned most of the basic flowers so I thought it's time to step up and try something totally different. So using the template from the book, I made this:


Yes, it's a car. Yes, it's supposed to be a vintage/antique car. And yes, being antique, it looks like it's about to fall apart hahaha! The original colour for the car was supposed to be red, but I've used up all my red papers, so I substitute the red with blue.


The original template was actually in reverse, but since I've messed up the other side with glue and I think it looked ugly, so I switched the side.


I love making the wheels haha, but really dreaded the car body parts. The body parts frustrated me sometimes, because I need to arrange the peds according to the template. But being me, I simply runs through all the rules and do it my way. LOL!


If you look closely on the pictures, you can still see the mess the glue gave me. I made the car few days back, started by shredding the papers at around 9++ pm and completed the whole car project at around 5 am the next morning. Yes, I don't sleep. No, quilling was not the only thing I did that night. I quilled while watching Kdrama on my laptop LOL. At least it would keep me from falling asleep.


Now that's the story of my first quilled car. :) Need to think of what to do next... another car? a house? Logos? Food? Yeah. may start quilling some chocolates later.

FOUND! : Craft Punch

Craft lovers in Malaysia, you'd love this news!

I love collecting craft punches, but always thought that they're a bit pricey in Malaysia. Someone on ebay even sold this same brand at RM15.00! Even the usual size punch would cost me around RM9.00 - RM15.00.

But then, last week I found these:


And they're sold at RM5.00 each! Isn't that cheap?! Unfortunately, they're only selling two designs, so I took both. I've been collecting leaves punches, so the leaf design is just perfect to be added to my collection. The punches can be found in 3 colours - pink, yellow and blue.

Can't wait to use them!

Found at: Daiso Japan, 2nd Floor, The Curve, Mutiara Damansara.
Sold at: RM5.00 each (everything in the store worth RM5.00 each)

Hurry up, while stocks last!

FOUND!

I'm starting a new Found! section. :) Found! will focus on craft tools and ideas that can be found anywhere, and came with drop dead prices. I'm a craft addict, and yet, I'm very calculative when it comes to buying some 'spensive crafts. So I would usually look for the craft substitutes that would work the same, but with cheaper value. I love window shopping (who doesn't) and sometimes you could really find some items that comes with very good value!

For example, I bought my first quilling tool at RM15, at a local craft shop. I later found out that the same type of tool was sold at an art shop for RM15 - for two! And the ink pads that are usually sold at craft shops for RM9.90 to RM15.00 per box - I found similar pads (but not branded) at only RM3.50 per box!

Okay, will tell about the other founds later. For this entry, I would love to share my latest found - Paper Shredder. You have no idea how long I've been looking for that perfect paper shredder - not to big, portable, shreds papers of good sizes for my quilling etc. I've searched almost all bookstores and stationery shops that I could find, and the cheapest was sold at RM99.90 - and that was only for limited time. It's huge in size, and the shredded papers were not really good for quilling purposes (6mm per shredded piece).

Ever since I started quilling, I've never bought any specially-made quilling papers that can easily be found at craft shops. I cut my own papers, and I recently bought a paper cutter (at only RM39.90!) so the task was getting easier. Getting a paper shredder would make all my hard word paid off easily. So when I found this paper shredder on sale yesterday, I got really excited and could not stop grinning inside the shop.


It's very light, portable, and the shredded piece is 3mm - which is PERFECT for my quilling! I could simply plug in the usb port to my computer and tadaa.. the shredder is ready.


And guess how much this shredder cost? It's sold at only RM29.00! The A4 size shredder (with similar lightness but a bit bigger in size) was sold at RM39.00. I took the smaller one coz I don't really care about the sizes, what I do care is the shredded pieces hehe.

Can't wait to start using the new machine!!

Oh, it also comes with this instruction - which I thought was quite hilarious haha.


After all, it was made in China. :)

Found at: IT Hyperstore, now at Ground Floor, Cineleisure Damansara.
Sold at: RM29.00 (mini shredder) and RM39.00 (bigger shredder for A4 size paper)